Hooch Tragedy in Majha Region of Punjab, India

Abstract

Due to rampant unemployment, the youth does not hesitate in engaging themselves in any work/job from where they can earn their livelihood. The underground trade of drug trafficking, drug peddling, and drug abuse is prevalent in this part of India for decades. This illicit trade affects the economy of the State and causes the physical, social, and mental degeneration of the persons consuming it. Recently about 150 people were affected after consuming illicit distilled spurious liquor in the Majha region of Punjab, and more than 100 people died due to it. Some of the cases were admitted to the hospital attached to Government Medical College, Amritsar. Out of these admitted cases, few of them succumbed to poisoning whose Forensic autopsies were conducted by the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, GMC, Amritsar. The meticulous autopsy findings and the scientific interpretation of the analysis of the detected methanol alone or along with ethyl alcohol reported by the chemical examiner to Punjab government led to the establishment of a definite cause of death which helped the investigating agencies in apprehending the people involved in these criminal activities.