Pune hooch deaths | FDA traces methanol used in spurious liquor to Bhiwandi warehouse

Thane: The Maharashtra FDA has seized 5,929 kg of toxic methanol from a warehouse in Thane district that allegedly supplied the chemical to bootleggers involved in making spurious liquor that claimed 14 lives in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, officials said on Saturday.

A Food Drug Administration (FDA) team raided the premises of Rex International in Bhiwandi on Friday and sealed it after the firm failed to produce any ledger entries or mandatory verification details under the Poisons Act, they said.

According to the police, 10 persons died in the Phugewadi area of Pimpri Chinchwad, and four others from the Pandhare Mala area in Pune's Hadapsar succumbed after consuming suspected spurious liquor over a period of two days.

During the probe, police arrested Karnelsingh Takhtsingh Virka (73), Gurmangatsingh Karnelsingh Virka (45), Yogesh Ramchandra Wankhede (23), Radhesham Hariram Prajapati (35), Indarjit Kaur Karnelsingh Virka (60) and Kalpesh Agrawal (29) in connection with the case.

According to a release issued by the FDA, the deadly country liquor — sold for a mere Rs 30 — had been spiked with industrial methanol sourced from Rex International.

Investigations revealed that Karnal Singh Virka procured the liquor from Wankhede, who in turn got the lethal substance from Prajapati of Uruli Kanchan.

Police traced the methanol component directly to the stocks of Rex International, which operates its corporate office in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, and has a warehouse in Bhiwandi, the release said.

The FDA team has sealed the premises and seized the entire undocumented stock of 5,929 kg of methanol, it stated.

The owners of the firm, Arun Kumar Choubey and Abhishek Asan Kumar Choubey, have already been taken into custody by the State Excise Department.

According to the FDA, the firm failed to produce even a single transactional log or ledger entry detailing the purchase, storage, or distribution of the hazardous substance.

"The organisation did not possess any mandatory verification details under the Poisons Act rules. The entire unaccounted stockpile was seized immediately to prevent further catastrophic misuse," the FDA statement said.

A complaint has been registered against the firm owners, and the FDA's Thane division has moved to permanently cancel the company's operating licenses by issuing show-cause notices under the Poisons Act.