MP replaces Sagar and Dewas collectors and SPs, suspends three excise officers after suspected hooch deaths

In Dewas, three officials of the excise department were also suspended: district excise officer Basanti Bhuria, assistant district excise officer Nilesh Pawar and excise sub-inspector Rajesh Khanna. The government has not said that the transferred officers face further action.

Dewas: ten deaths, a dispute over the cause

The administration says that ten people died in Chandana village between 1 and 15 October. Another report puts the deaths at about 15 over around 20 days. Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda said that eight of the ten deaths were natural and that the post-mortem reports of the other two showed no trace of spurious liquor. The viscera of two of the dead have been sent to a forensic laboratory, and the reports were still awaited on Wednesday.

The Congress disputes this. State president Jitu Patwari has said that 22 people died and at least 40 suffered loss of vision in the affected areas, which is the kind of harm that methanol poisoning can cause. The party has announced Rs 50,000 for the family of each person who died in Dewas, while the Leader of the Opposition, Umang Singhar, has asked the Chief Minister for Rs 25 lakh per family and another former minister has asked for Rs 1 crore. The Congress has also written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the deaths, and the Bharatiya Janata Party has hit back.

Sagar: a toll that varies by account

In Sagar, the deaths were in the Banda and Shahgarh subdivisions, where 16 people are reported to have died of spurious liquor. Other accounts give higher figures, including 30, and one report counts the unofficial toll for both districts together as 32. A police operation in Banda has busted a racket in which one alleged kingpin has been arrested, while another accused is absconding with a reward of Rs 20,000 on his head. The Madhya Pradesh High Court disposed of a public interest petition seeking a probe into the Sagar deaths in September, noting that the state had already set up a judicial commission.

In the court case on the Sagar deaths, a report said the petition spoke of around 36 deaths in Banda and Shahgarh, with first information reports against 33 people and about 19 arrests, while the state said that 20 people had died. A police team also traced the source of the liquor in one account of the Sagar deaths to Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh, which is the kind of cross-border supply link investigators look for in such cases.

Deaths from spurious liquor are hard to count in the first days. Families may not link a death to drinking, some victims die at home or in distant hospitals, and the official toll depends on the cause of death recorded after post-mortem and laboratory tests. Methanol poisoning can take hours or days to show symptoms, which include blurred vision, headache, vomiting and breathing trouble, and anyone who has these after drinking illicit liquor should reach a hospital quickly.

Families who lost relatives in the affected villages have been waiting for answers, and the transfers have not changed the question of compensation, which the opposition has raised with the government. The administration has not announced any payment in the reports available, though the Congress has announced Rs 50,000 for each family in Dewas from party funds.

The forensic reports from Dewas will show whether the Congress or the administration is right about the cause, and they will decide whether the three suspended officials face departmental or criminal action. The judicial commission in Sagar and the police case against the racket will decide who is held responsible. The transfers are an administrative step and do not by themselves establish who was at fault.