CHENNAI: For eight years since 2012, there were zero deaths due to the consumption of spurious liquor, while the number of fatalities have increased over 100 in the last four years, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data (till 2022) and recent incidents.
While the NCRB data for the last two years are not public yet, deaths in Marakkanam and Chengalpattu last year and in Kallakurichi now has questioned the functioning of the Prohibition and Enforcement Wing (PEW). There are 101 PEW units in the state and several lakhs of illicit distilled liquor are seized every year, according to the police.
Curiously, there are also discrepancies between the data provided by the NCRB and the state government. While the NCRB data shows there were 16 deaths in Tamil Nadu in 2022 due to consumption of illicit/spurious liquor, the state government’s policy note of the Home, Prohibition and Excise Department (2023-2024) claims that there were no deaths in 2022, listing it as an “achievement” of the PEW.
The policy note of the previous year (2022-23) too claims that there were no deaths in the previous years, while NCRB data showed that there were six deaths in 2021 and 20 deaths in 2020 due to consumption of illicit/spurious liquor.
The recent hooch tragedy in Kallakurichi, which has snuffed out over 50 lives as on Friday, is the worst in the decade. One of the accused, Kannukutty alias K Govindharaj is a serial offender and he was among the first to be arrested by the Kallakurichi police last year when police went on an overdrive after the deaths in Marakkanam and Chengalpattu. He was arrested on May 19, 2023 with 25 litres of illicit arrack. Even two weeks before the deaths, he was arrested for selling liquor bottles illegally.
The NCRB data, conspicuously accounts the number of deaths due to consumption of illegal/spurious liquor for the years 2011, 2010 and 2009 to over 1,000 persons in Tamil Nadu, but senior police officers claimed that it is bound to be a clerical error. The policy note of the state government (2013-14) too mentions there were zero deaths in the same period.