Kallakurichi hooch tragedy: Fermented with methanol and apathy

An eerie silence has engulfed the grubby and narrow lanes of Karunapuram situated behind government offices and the Combined Court buildings in Kallakurichi town.

The silence, time and again, gets punctuated by the whining sirens of ambulances, making their way into the locality followed by bouts of piercing wails renting the air.

Karunapuram village has plunged into collective grief. Almost every family here has lost either a breadwinner or a relative or a friend to spurious liquor even as the the death toll continues to rise in one of the worst-ever hooch tragedies in Tamil Nadu in the recent past.

The death toll has reached 55 as of Saturday, June 22, while 159 others are battling for their lives in hospitals.

The deaths occurred after the residents of Karunapuram, mostly Dalits and others from socially and economically disadvantaged groups, who are daily wage labourers and loaders, consumed methanol-infused hooch from a local bootlegger Govindaraj, alias Kannukutty, on the night of June 18.

Most of the victims who succumbed between Tuesday, June 18 and Friday, June 21 were from Karunapuram.

As many as 31 persons died at the Government Kallakurichi Medical College Hospital, 17 at the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital in Salem, four at the Government Villupuram Medical College Hospital and three at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) in Puducherry.

The presence of methanol in the brew was high enough to send the locals who started experiencing symptoms of breathlessness, abdominal pain, blurred vision and repeated bouts of diarrhoea to hospitals in Kallakurichi, Villupuram and Salem on the nights between Tuesday and Friday. Of these, 16 were referred to the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) in Puducherry.

Arrests made

The government has, since, made arrests, and taken action against several officials who might have been in a position to prevent these deaths, by cracking fire on illicit bootlegging, but failed to, announced a solatium for the families of the deceased and compensation for those in hospital, and offered to support the education of children in the villages affected by the hooch tragedy, but the first official response was disappointing. Initially, as news of the death of three men following the consumption of spurious liquor came to light on Wednesday, June 19, the district administration and the Police sought to downplay it.

Also Read | Killer moonshine: On the hooch tragedy in Kallakurichi

District Collector Sravan Kumar Jatavath (since transferred) met media persons at Government Kallakurichi Medical College Hospital and attempted to suppress information on the deaths and claimed that they weres not due to the consumption of hooch. Mr. Jatavath claimed that one of the victims who died, had been admitted to the hospital for stomach pain and had been discharged on Tuesday. Another victim died due to seizures, he said, claiming that all the three deaths were not due to the consumption of liquor. This falsehood was immediately exposed with a visit to Kallakurichi, where it was clear that the sale and consumption of spurious liquor was routine for village residents.

The Kallakurichi district police then issued a statement on a WhatsApp group of reporters and police personnel stating that the news of the death of three persons was doing the rounds. The exact cause of death could be ascertained only after post-mortems, the police said, adding that there was no need for panic. Meanwhile, blood reports of those who had been admitted in hospitals had already indicated methanol poisoning.

A few hours after authorities confirmed that five lives had been lost at that point even as the deaths continued to rise, the government swung into action and ordered the transfer of the Collector and placed under suspension the Superintendent of Police Samay Singh Meena and eight other police officers.

M.S. Prasanth was appointed as the new Collector and Rajat Chaturvedi, the new SP. The case was also transferred to the Crime Branch-CID, which has commenced its probe. Former High Court judge B. Gokuldas, the one-man commission appointed by the Tamil Nadu government to probe the hooch tragedy also commenced his inquiry process.

The death toll in this tragedy is now higher than that of the last major hooch tragedy that took place last year and was also reported in the northern districts of Villupuram and Chengalpattu, when 22 people had died.

A popular bootlegger

The CB-CID police have so far arrested the bootlegger Govindaraj alias Kannukutty, his wife Vijaya, brother Damodaran and Chinnadurai, the prime suspect who is believed to have supplied the brew to Govindaraj. Joseph alias Raja of Sankarapuram who had supplied the brew to Chinnadurai was also arrested.

Two more persons, Ramar and Madesh have also been arrested.

While the police in Kallakurichi district are tight-lipped over the tragedy, local residents of Karunapuram allege that it was common knowledge that illicit liquor was being freely sold in the area.

When this reporter visited Karunapuram to meet the next of kin of victims, a number of them confirmed of having seen the bootlegger in the locality quite often. The suspension of police officers including the SP point to the complicity of the authorities especially the Prohibition Enforcement Wing (PEW) and the jurisdictional Kallakurichi town police in the sale of spurious liquor.

The station is located just a few hundred metres from Karunapuram, the epicentre of the tragedy.

Kannukutty had a regular clientele for illicit liquor, and he made the deliveries on his two-wheeler, with the brew contained in plastic pouches priced at ₹60, even making sales on credit.

The victims who hailed from the lower economic strata of society including daily wage labourers and loaders took to the brew to cope with their daily exertion.

Police now admit that a number of villages in Kalvaryan hills, comprising of a separate taluk had gained notoriety for arrack brewing. The arrack, made from the hog plum found abundantly in the hills, was mainly used to prepare the brew. The brewing had been thriving as arrack is a cheap substitute for Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) for many residents in the hills, who have few job opportunities.

The prices of IMFL brands sold by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) were also hiked in February this year pushing the low-income groups to gravitate towards illicit liquor, which is cheaper. While the hike of ₹10 for ordinary and medium-range liquor and ₹20 for premium brands ensured additional income to the State, people in the district began moving to cheaper varieties, thus patronising deadly moonshine.

A policeman who wanted to remain anonymous said that the arrack-brewers had spread their presence across remote hamlets and forest fringes. “Realising this, former Superintendents of Police Ziaul Haque and N. Mohanraj launched intensive crackdowns in the hills and destroyed the sources of arrack despite pressure from the powers to be. However, these raids fizzled out after their tenures ended,” he said.

“It is common knowledge that spurious liquor is being sold with the involvement of the police personnel and politicians. While the small fry involved in bootlegging are arrested often, the big fish remain untouched. This emboldens the kingpins with political connections who exercise control over it. The police could crack down on them if they want to, but it is a lucrative business, and they get good returns. A few local politicians including those from the ruling party have also made good fortunes from this nexus,” said residents of Karunapuram.

While the Kallakurichi district police and the Prohibition Enforcement Wing (PEW) police have been issuing frequent statements and videos on the destruction of fermented wash and the seizure of arrack not exceeding 100 litres in the hills, moonshine had silently made its way into Karunapuram under the protective patronage of the local police and politicians. They waited for this tragedy to happen rather than launch a crackdown, residents allege.

As the count of the dead keeps rising, anger is palpable in Karunapuram against the district administration and the police. Local residents allege that illicit liquor had been thriving in the locality. The police did little to clamp down on the dealers, they charge.

Murugan, 30, a loader and son of one of the victims Vijayan, said that his father was a regular consumer of the brew, and it was freely available in Karunapuram and its vicinity over the past decade. The bootleggers have not been facing any action or intervention from law enforcement authorities, he said.

“When I questioned the bootleggers about selling the brew in the locality, I faced stiff opposition, and they asked me to remain quiet. It is a matter of concern since the bootleggers openly claimed that they were bribing the police personnel and powers to be every month,” he pointed out.

The bootleggers claimed that they had the freedom to sell due to overwhelming patronage and no one had the right to question them. They used to tell us “No one asks you to drink” Murugan said.

“What are the locals supposed to do when the police are hand-in-glove with the bootleggers. As many as four able-bodied youth from Karunapuram have lost their lives in the tragedy and a similar incident should not recur,” he further added.

Deadly precursor

It seems no lessons have been learnt since the twin tragedies in Marakkanam in neighbouring Villupuram and Chengalpattu districts in May 2023.

In the Karunapuram incident, Govindaraj, the bootlegger among the first arrested by the police after the tragedy, has reportedly had a flourishing business for the last decade. He was a repeat offender and has been arrested nearly 20 times in the past.

But he continued to sell the brew and distribute it through a network of accomplices after being released every time. He knew the brew could kill.

“Even after Wednesday’s incident, spurious liquor continued to be sold to the locals who had come to Karunapuram for the mass funeral. This only shows the kind of clout enjoyed by the kingpins and the police-arrack seller nexus,” said a woman resident of Karunapuram.

Preliminary investigations and results of the brew seized from Govindaraj and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Villupuram have confirmed the presence of methanol, a toxic industrial chemical. While its sale is banned by the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937, and rules govern its availability, how it made its way to Karunapuram remains a mystery.

Police said that investigations had revealed that the methanol was procured from Puducherry. Investigations will continue, and possibly result in several reports being filed, but for the people of Karunapuram who have lost so much, the plea to the government is to ensure that the crackdown on bootleggers is firm and complete, and that such tragedies are prevented in future.