At least 11 dead after consuming fake liquor in Madhya Pradesh

At least 11 people died on Sunday (September 6, 2026) after consuming spurious liquor in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district.

On the instructions of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, the government initiated a police inquiry, suspended three excise officers and two police officers, and relieved and transferred one excise officer. Speaking in New Delhi, Mr Yadav called the death “extremely distressing and unfortunate” and said “no guilty party will be spared”.

Deepak Saxena, State Excise Commissioner, told The Hindu that action has been taken against four officials for gross negligence and failure to respond to recent complaints of sale of spurious liquor in some villages of the district.

Sagar Superintendent of Police Anurag Sujania said 12 suspects have been detained and are being interrogated.

Officials said that early on Sunday, people fell ill in four villages – Nauraj, Gogra Khurd, Bamura and Patan under Banda tehsil border.

Collector Sagar Pratibha Pal said post-mortems are still going on and the administration is looking for people who fell ill. “A medical team is screening such people and officials like SDM are on the spot. We are trying to identify anyone with such symptoms and send them to Bundelkhand Medical College for observation,” she said.

Ms Pal said several post-mortem examinations indicated that the death may have been caused by the consumption of methyl alcohol. “Interactions with local residents indicated that the deaths occurred after (the victims) consumed illegal, spurious alcohol. Screening has already started in the affected villages,” Ms Pal added.

She said initial investigations pointed to the involvement of a gang from Uttar Pradesh. “There is a gang from Lalitpur, UP involved in the supply of meth and since we share a border with Lalitpur, we have received information that their chain in our area has also noticed (ours). Further investigation is on,” she added.

Another SP of Sagar area, Narendra Solanki, told The Hindu that apart from the dead, those who fell ill have also been hospitalised. “But they are all out of danger now,” he said.

Mr. Sujania also said that the liquor could have come from Lalitpur. “Such activities have been detected there in the past as well. So we are working in the same direction and will soon reach its main source. So far, we have detained 10-12 people and are trying to establish links through systematic interrogation. We are also trying to restrict his movement if he is somewhere else to prevent further loss of life,” he said.

Ajay Lodhi, a resident of Nauraj, who fell ill after drinking spurious liquor, told reporters that spurious liquor is sold in villages and that he bought it from a small grocery store in his village.

Mr. Saxena suspended Kirti Dubey (Deputy Excise Commissioner, Sagar), Dilip Khandate (Deputy Excise District Collector) and Proshni Ureti (Excise Sub-Inspector, Banda Circle). Neerja Srivastava, Deputy Commissioner and in-charge of the Divisional Flying Squad, has been attached to the Gwalior HQ.

The Banda police station command and Ghughra police station in-charge have also been suspended.

“Prima facie it was found that there were some complaints in the area in the last few weeks and the officials were aware of it but did not act properly. If they had conducted a confiscation campaign or taken some action, the sale could have been checked. It was their responsibility,” said Mr. Saxena, who is among the senior officials deployed in Sagar to deal with the situation, the Chief Minister.

He denied that there were complaints from other districts, but said there was a pattern in the production and sale of illegal liquor in Sagar.

“That’s why we have deployed a state flying team in Sagar for a few days. But we cannot call it a single unfortunate incident and we have to learn from it. We have instructed officials in all districts to conduct campaigns against such liquor by checking shops and visiting villages,” he said, adding that a meeting of excise officials from all districts is scheduled on Monday.

“We will have to tackle this issue in campaign mode by breaking the supply chain of illegal liquor. We will also conduct spot checks to check the methyl alcohol content of liquor sold in shops to see if it is fake,” he said.

Earlier, Chief Minister Yadav said, “The report of death due to alcohol consumption in Banda-Shahgarh area of ​​Sagar district is extremely disturbing and unfortunate. The minister-in-charge and officials of Sagar district have been asked to immediately investigate the incident and take strictest action against the culprits. No guilty party will be spared in this matter after investigation.”

The Madhya Pradesh Congress hit out at the BJP government, demanding a judicial inquiry into the incident, arrest of those responsible within 24 hours and compensation of ₹25 lakh for each victim.

State Congress Jitu Patwari wrote to the Chief Minister and said, “The second such tragedy to occur in Sagar is a proof that the BJP government has not learned from the first incident! Don’t wait for the third warning now! Start taking such strict action that there are no more reports of deaths due to poisonous liquor from any village in Sagar!”

Published – 6 Sep 2026 11:09 AM IST