The death toll due to the consumption of spurious liquor in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district went up to 13 on Sunday (August 23, 2026) after two more victims succumbed during treatment, officials said.
Three other persons were still in hospital, they said.
In the last two days, five persons have lost their lives. Mukesh Damor (36) and Bhargav Upadhyay (42) are the latest victims of the hooch tragedy. With their death, the number of victims has gone up to 13, the officials said.
Upadhyay was undergoing treatment at a private hospital, while Damor was admitted to the civil hospital.
According to officials, 67 persons had consumed the liquor containing methanol, a highly toxic substance.
Gujarat is a ‘dry’ State where the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is banned. According to police, the victims consumed spurious liquor packed in bottles bearing the name of a popular Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) brand.
The authorities traced 24 other persons who had consumed the liquor for their medical examination. All of them were found to be in normal health, an official said. The death toll currently stands at 13, he said.
Police have so far arrested 13 of the 21 accused named in the FIR registered at Vartej police station in connection with the hooch tragedy.
The accused persons have been booked on several charges, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, adulteration and poisoning, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Prohibition Act.
A local court on Thursday (August 20, 2026) remanded the arrested persons to police custody for 10 days.
The probe has been handed over to the State Monitoring Cell, a special Gujarat police unit that tracks state-wide illicit liquor and gambling operations.
The hooch was allegedly prepared at the house of Gautam Solanki, a resident of Vartej, with the help of Raees, who has been detained in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.
The toxic liquor was packed and sealed in bottles carrying the label of an IMFL brand and supplied to bootleggers for distribution. The matter came to light after three friends consumed the liquor at Vartej on the night of August 16. All of them took ill, and one of them later died.
The examination of the blood sample of the first victim, Upendrasinh Gohil, showed the presence of methanol. More deaths followed, and many more were hospitalised with severe complications.
The liquor contained 38.59% methanol and 0.94% ethanol, as per the Forensic Science Laboratory report, officials said.
Solanki told the police that he came in contact with Raees through a common friend. Raees and Zuber, his assistant from Ujjain, procured raw materials from Ahmedabad and prepared the toxic liquor at Solanki’s residence, according to the FIR registered at Vartej police station on August 19.
They involved Narendra Yadav, also from Madhya Pradesh, in the illegal business. Yadav, police later said, died after consuming the liquor that he himself prepared.
Teams have also been sent to Madhya Pradesh and Delhi, from where the raw material was likely supplied to Gujarat. Prima facie, most of these people did this for financial gain, according to police.
The police are also looking into where the bottle-sealing equipment came from and who supplied it.
Published – August 23, 2026 02:58 pm IST
