The lure of lucre and deadly deals
RECIPE FOR DISASTER Hindustan Times reconstructs the trail of the tragedy to ascertain how methanol bought from a Ludhiana-based supplier landed up as killer brew in Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur districts and resulted in death of 113 persons
CHANDIGARH: Lure of easy money and shortage of illegal extra neutral alcohol (ENA) due to lockdown resulted in Punjab’s worstever hooch tragedy that killed 113 across three districts. ENA is the primary raw material for making alcoholic beverages.
The selling of hooch was running smoothly in Majha region, till mid-july, when shortage of illegal ENA hit bootlegers. As a matter of routine, ENA remains available in the black market, as suppliers pilfer it during transport to distilleries, police claim.
This year, shortage occurred as its demand in the market had increased manifold to make hand sanitisers, in view of covid-19. Removal of lockdown restrictions also meant increased demand.
Finally, known bootleggers of the Majha region, Harjit Singh and his son Satnam Singh from Pandori Golan village in Tarn Taran, contacted Avtar Singh, a Moga resident, in search of ENA. Police probe shows that Avtar and Harjit had a long association.
Avtar further knew another Moga resident Ravinder Singh Anand, who stocked ENA, as he ran a small factory that made perfumes. He started making hand sanitisers too after covid-19 spurred demand, but of poor quality, the probe has found. Anand’s ENA supply came from Ludhiana businessman Rajiv Joshi, arrested on August 3. Joshi could keep ENA as he owned a paint shop. After taking it from Joshi, Anand was to supply ENA to the Majha duo.
GREED FOR MORE MARGINS MADE THE DEADLY MIXTURE?
Police claim Anand sent his employee to buy three drums of ENA of 200 litre each from Joshi in Ludhiana, as he owed Rs 3 lakh to him. “Joshi asked his staff to make a substandard chemical by using 80-85% of methanol and 10-15% of isopropyl alcohol. Interestingly, Joshi had always been selling this chemical to Anand by terming it ENA,” a senior police official said.
Probe has found that Joshi had never actually dealt in procurement and sale of ENA and would only sell mixture of methanol and IPA, by claiming it to be a mixture of ENA and LPA. IPA is added in the ENA to give it a strong smell.
“Methanol and IPA’S margin per litre is Rs 20-25 per litre. ENA and spirit’s margin is Rs 10 per litre in the black market. Joshi has admitted that he used to sell methanol as ENA only to make more profit and did the same in supplying to Anand. Joshi was probably not aware that Anand would sell it make hooch,” probe officers claimed.
THE ROUTE TO FINAL SALE
The Pandori Gola village based Harjit and Satnam had strong supply chain across Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Gurdaspur, including with the two women, Triveni Chauhan in Batala and Balwinder Kaur of Muchhal village of Amritsar. These acted as end-suppliers. It was in Muchhal, where the death of five person led to an alarm.
Probe found that Anand bought three drums of 200 litre each from Joshi at Rs 11,000 per drum. Anand’s friend Avtar sold it to Pandori Gola’s Satnam Singh Rs 28,000 per drum. Satnam supplied it to small-time sellers. He also 42 bottles of chemical for Rs 6,000 to Gobinder Singh of Jandiala of Amritsar. Gobinder diluted 42 bottles with 10% water and made 46 bottles of alcohol to sell for Rs 7,200 to Balwinder Kaur of Muchal on July 28. Balwinder diluted the chemical by adding 50% water, making 90 bottles and sold these at Rs 100 per bottle.
Satnam’s Batala module also had two women, Darshana and Triveni. These too operated the same way. Tarn Taran district has seen 84 deaths; Amritsar and Batala 13 each.
‘SWIFT PROBE SAVED FURTHER DAMAGE’
Senior police officials claim that swift action after the first deaths ensured that the tragedy was contained.
“Information about 10 suspicious deaths was received on July 30 and by August 2 morning, all suppliers were arrested and the chemical recovered from them. By August 3, all accused involved in the supply chain have were arrested,” a police official said.
Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said, “Merely booking the accused under the excise act does not stop these habitual offenders. One woman accused in this had more than 20 FIRS registered against her but she continued to be in this illegal trade. We need strong laws to deal with these crimes. At the same time, we need to regulate the supply of chemicals as well.”