Avoidable tragedy

This week, the Tamil Nadu police invoked murder charges as per Section 302 of the IPC against 13 accused individuals, in the aftermath of the deaths of 22 persons in Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts, from consumption of spurious liquor. Governor RN Ravi sought a report on the cause of deaths of the victims, on the grounds that the Tamil Nadu police had claimed the tragedy was not linked to the brewing of illicit arrack. It had instead pinned the blame on the consumption of methanol sourced from a chemical factory in Chennai, and sold to the victims in sachets by local sellers.

Over 1,100 people have been arrested in connection with illicit arrack cases while the CB-CID slapped a murder case against a chemical engineer from Maduravoyal from whom the methanol was procured, and 16 people who functioned as suppliers of the hooch. Police have also surveyed 11 industries manufacturing ethanol in TN, and 71 industries where methanol is used. Many villagers have blamed district officials including police personnel, alleging that the illicit arrack that was seized by the prohibition enforcement wing during raids are stored in police stations and eventually sold back to bootleggers.

The State had said last month that there had been no hooch-related tragedies in Tamil Nadu over the last 14 years. This is in stark contrast to the recent developments, but data gleaned from the Union Home Ministry and NCRB (2016-21), tells us that deaths from illicit or spurious liquor have been brought down significantly in India. Our state had not reported any deaths between 2016-19, but a year later, there were 20 casualties, followed by six deaths in 2021. Such avoidable tragedies occur time and again owing to a faulty liquor policy in Tamil Nadu, and a clear lack of enforcement.

In spite of bringing methanol under the purview of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937, two recent episodes have highlighted how the chemical has found its way into the hooch lexicon. For higher profits, some sellers add methanol to the mix, to dilute the liquor and increase its potency.

The lucrative nature of this business is an incentive for bootleggers, who run their business parallel to the government-operated Tasmac stores, raking in crores of rupees annually. Some of the liquor is smuggled in from Puducherry, where the sale of arrack has been legalised. Others bootleg it from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where the product is distilled illegally.

This tragedy has brought to the fore, a prohibition-related concern buried under the carpet for years now. The availability of cheap, but hazardous variants of arrack outside the umbrella of Tasmac is a glaring lapse on part of law enforcement authorities. Their failure to monitor the movement of methanol was viewed by many observers as symbolic of the police’s complicity in the crime.

As much as 5 lakh litres of arrack were seized across India last year. Ironically, even in states with a total prohibition policy in place, such as Bihar and Gujarat, intoxicant tragedies are not unheard of. Here in TN, CM Stalin has stressed on the need for increased awareness against drugs and illicit brews through the involvement of educational institutions and NGOs. He has also called for popularising the toll free prohibition helpline. What TN needs is a robust policy to counter the menace of spurious liquor. If that means regulating the market for legal manufacturing of arrack, like how Puducherry does, the government must not shy away from exploring such options.