Spurious liquor kills 4 in ‘dry’ Gujarat; 4 bootleggers caught

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Relatives of victims at the Sir Takhtasinh General Hospital in Bhavnagar on August 19, 2026. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

“Four persons have died and 18 others were hospitalised, eight of them in critical condition, after consuming spurious liquor in Gujarat ’s Bhavnagar district,” officials said on Wednesday (August 19, 2026).

“Four bootleggers have been detained in this connection,” they said, adding that the victims had consumed duplicate liquor of a popular Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) brand. Gujarat is a ‘dry’ State where manufacturing, sale and consumption of alcohol are banned.

Bhavnagar Collector Manish Kumar said the district administration received information at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday (August 18, 2026) about a group of five friends falling ill after consuming illicit liquor during a party in Kharkadi village in Ghogha taluka of the district.

“People from other villages and areas within Bhavnagar city have also been affected. In total, 22 people are impacted. While four persons have died, 18 others are currently undergoing treatment,” he told reporters.

“The deceased have been identified as Kartik Makwana (40), Upendra Gohil (25), Ghanshyam Jadeja (50), and Narendra Yadav,” Mr. Kumar added. “However, it is yet to be completely established whether Yadav died due to consumption of spurious liquor or not,” he said.

“Of the 18 people undergoing treatment, medical reports indicate that two are in critical condition, four are in the ICU, two are on ventilators, while 10 others are stable,” he said. The Collector said one person from Surat was currently undergoing treatment there, while the person from Jamnagar is asymptomatic.

He also appealed to all those in the affected areas who consumed IMFL of a particular brand in the last four days to get themselves examined at the nearest hospital or Sir T Hospital in Bhavnagar, regardless of whether they are showing symptoms.

Teams of doctors from Sir T Hospital and Ahmedabad’s kidney hospital IKDRC are also being sent to free treatment camps running at private hospitals to provide supervision.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Nitesh Pandey said a group of people consumed liquor from a “duplicate” bottle of an IMFL brand at Kharkadi village a few days back, after which their health deteriorated.

“A man subsequently died, and six others were admitted to various hospitals in Bhavnagar for treatment,” he said. “Bootleggers from Vartej and other police station areas in the city have been detained,” SP Pandey told reporters.

“The examination of these affected people showed a common pattern that most of them consumed alcohol from the duplicate liquor bottles,” the official said.

“Preliminary investigation suggests that these bottles were supplied from Madhya Pradesh, and further investigation was under way into aspects, like from where they were brought, how they were produced, and who sent them here,” he said.