BHOPAL: Spurious liquor poisoning has claimed at least 11 lives in five to six villages in Banda tehsil of Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, while around 80 people are undergoing treatment at three hospitals in the district.
While the official death toll stands at 11, around 80 patients from four to five villages identified as hotspots of the hooch tragedy, as well as some adjoining villages, have been admitted to hospitals in Sagar’s Bundelkhand region.
According to Sagar district chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Dr Devesh Pateriya, at least 55 patients are admitted at Bundelkhand Medical College in Sagar city, 17 are being treated at Sagar District Hospital and seven at Banda Civil Hospital. One critically ill patient has been airlifted from the medical college in Sagar to Bhopal for advanced life-saving treatment.
The 11 men who died after consuming the spurious liquor were aged between 30 and 56 years and hailed from six villages, Ghooghra Khurd, Nauraj, Bamoora, Patan, Chauka and Dalpatpur. Six of the deceased were from Ghooghra Khurd and Nauraj, while two were residents of Bamoora. All the villages are located in Banda tehsil.
The first death was reported at Banda Civil Hospital on Saturday night, while the other deaths began occurring early Sunday morning, after around 4.30 am.
“At least eight autopsies have been conducted at the Banda Civil Hospital, which is the nearest prominent government hospital for the affected villages. Most deceased were brought to the hospital in a gasping state, while the majority of those being treated at the concerned hospital and the two bigger hospitals in Sagar city, complained blurred vision, which is a distinctive symptom of methyl alcohol poisoning,” the CMHO said.
While autopsies have been conducted at Banda Civil Hospital, it is not yet clear how many have been performed at Bundelkhand Medical College and Sagar District Hospital. Unconfirmed reports suggest that six to seven autopsies have been conducted at the medical college.
Although the district administration has put the official death toll at 11, unconfirmed reports suggest that the number of deaths linked to the liquor poisoning could be higher.
According to Sagar district collector Pratibha Pal, Ghooghra Khurd and Nauraj have emerged as the two main hotspots, while similar cases have also been reported from adjoining villages.
“It’s after our medical teams started door-to-door screening of residents in the affected villages that the patients started getting traced and were rushed to hospitals for treatment. Our teams are still camping in the affected villages,” Pal said.
A local health department source said the medical histories of the deceased and those who fell ill indicated that most had consumed liquor on Friday. After developing health problems, they visited nearby private clinics, received injections and returned home. It was only on Saturday night that their condition began to deteriorate, following which health department teams fanned out across the affected villages.
Some bereaved families who were met by Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Umang Singhar on Sunday evening alleged that the men had consumed liquor purchased from licensed liquor shops.
At least six liquor vends have been sealed and their samples sent for detailed laboratory analysis.
A preliminary inquiry has revealed a suspected Uttar Pradesh link to the tragedy in the Madhya Pradesh villages bordering the neighbouring state.
“From the probe conducted till now, there is a strong possibility that the suspected spurious liquor was sourced from adjoining Lalitpur district of UP, where manufacturing of spurious liquor has been reported in the recent past also. A case has been registered under BNS and MP State Excise Act sections against 20 accused, out of which ten have already been arrested,” Sagar district Superintendent of Police Anurag Sujaniya said.
Importantly, on May 4, 2026, police in adjoining Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh reportedly busted a major inter-state spurious liquor manufacturing and distribution syndicate. The racket allegedly supplied spurious liquor in bottles carrying fake wrappers, QR codes, bottles and caps resembling prominent Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and country-made liquor brands.
The spurious liquor was allegedly supplied to liquor vends and roadside dhabas in Banda tehsil of Sagar district, the area where Sunday’s deaths occurred, as well as adjoining Chhatarpur and Niwari districts of Madhya Pradesh.
“The syndicate busted by us particularly targeted tipplers in the adjoining MP districts, information about which had been shared with our counterparts there in May only, while collecting the previous crime records of those arrested by us,” a police officer at Lalitpur district Kotwali told TNIE on Sunday.
The spurious liquor, packaged as prominent IMFL and country-made liquor brands, was allegedly transported in Audi and Creta cars and on expensive motorbikes to evade police detection in targeted markets of adjoining Madhya Pradesh districts.
The alleged kingpin of the racket, Ravi Lakhera, and his wife, Shivani Lakhera, originally hailed from adjoining Chhatarpur district. One of the other aides arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police was a resident of Malthone in Sagar district.
The liquor was allegedly prepared at Ravi Lakhera’s premises using material largely sourced from Haryana. Investigations had revealed that Ravi was a liquor contractor from Chhatarpur district who had earlier operated six to seven licensed liquor vends there. Police said he was later lured by the prospect of higher profits into manufacturing spurious liquor at lower costs and selling it as branded liquor at inflated prices.
“The spurious liquor which was sold at much lower prices than actual branded bottles. formed the unaccounted sales of the liquor vends and roadside dhabas,” an informed source said.
Despite the Uttar Pradesh Police having shared inputs with their counterparts in adjoining Madhya Pradesh districts after busting the alleged syndicate in Lalitpur in May 2026, questions have been raised over whether adequate action was taken by local authorities, particularly in Banda subdivision of Sagar district. The alleged racket came under scrutiny after the deaths reported on Sunday.
“We can't perfectly claim that the spurious liquor racket busted in Lalitpur (UP) in May 2026 was the source of this tragedy, but from inputs available with us some similar racket which supplies these liquor bottles might have been operating from the same area of UP,” a senior state police officer in Bhopal said.
This is not the first recent hooch tragedy in which an inter-state link has emerged. The probe into last month’s hooch tragedy in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, had revealed that key accused included Raees, who hailed from Madhya Pradesh’s Ujjain district, and Anand Rakesh Chhandi, a resident of Rajgarh in MP. One of the 13 deceased, Narendrasingh Yadav, who was allegedly involved in preparing the spurious liquor for the racket, also hailed from northern Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district.
Meanwhile, acting on Chief Minister Mohan Yadav’s directions for strict action against those responsible and officials found wanting in discharging their duties, action has been initiated against four excise department officials and two police officers in Sagar district.
State Excise Commissioner Deepak Saxena, who visited Sagar following the chief minister’s instructions, ordered the immediate suspension of Sagar Assistant Excise Commissioner Kirti Dubey, Assistant District Excise Officer Dilip Khandate and Banda Excise Sub-Inspector Proshni Ureti.
Sagar Divisional Excise Deputy Commissioner and divisional flying squad in-charge Nirja Srivastava was removed from her post and attached to the State Excise Department headquarters in Gwalior.
Two local police officers, including Banda police station in-charge Rajendra Singh Kushwaha and Ghooghra police outpost head Puran Lal Ladiya, have also been suspended.