Rajkot: The death toll in the Bhavnagar spurious liquor tragedy climbed to 13 on Sunday after another victim succumbed during treatment, officials said, even as three others remained hospitalised. Five deaths were reported in the last two days alone, with 42-year-old Bhargav Upadhyay, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital, becoming the latest casualty.Officials said 67 people had consumed liquor laced with methanol, a highly toxic industrial chemical. Gujarat is a ‘dry’ state where manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited. Police said victims had drunk spurious liquor packed in bottles carrying the label of a popular Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) brand. Authorities traced 24 other people who had consumed the liquor and got them medically examined; all were found to be in normal health.Police have arrested 13 of the 21 accused named in the FIR registered at Vartej police station. The accused face charges including culpable homicide not amounting to murder, adulteration and poisoning under BNS and the Prohibition Act. A local court on Thursday remanded the arrested persons to police custody for 10 days. The investigation was transferred to the State Monitoring Cell, a special Gujarat police unit that tracks illicit liquor and gambling networks across the state.According to police, the toxic liquor was allegedly brewed at the Vartej residence of accused Gautam Solanki, with help from an accomplice Raees, who has since been detained from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. The liquor was reportedly bottled and sealed under the label of the IMFL brand before being handed over to bootleggers for distribution.The case came to light after three friends consumed the liquor at Vartej on the night of Aug 16 and fell ill; one of them later died. A blood sample from the first victim, Upendrasinh Gohil, tested positive for methanol, after which more deaths and hospitalisations followed. A Forensic Science Laboratory report found the liquor contained 38.59% methanol against just 0.94% ethanol, officials said.
