Kirana store owners caught selling hand rub as booze in Dwarka
Rajkot: Remember when during the Covid-19 pandemic the lack of access to liquor drove some desperate individuals to drink hand sanitizer as a substitute for alcohol?
In a bitter reminder of those days, when sanitizer also proved fatal for some, Devbhumi Dwarka police busted a racket of hand rub being sold as booze by some provision store owners in the temple town of Dwarka.
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While the bottles were seized on the grounds of suspicion in March, a formal complaint was lodged on Tuesday after forensic tests confirmed the presence of a high content of ethyl alcohol in the bottles.
Acting on specific intelligence, police conducted a raid at Chamunda Provision Store in Dwarka on March 29 and seized 106 suspicious bottles. These transparent plastic bottles were labelled 'Green Apple Hand Rub' and 'Orange Hand Rub'.
Similar bottles were found in other provision stores nearby.
The investigation revealed that the liquid had been manufactured at Vasai in Maharashtra. Police raided a factory named HR Herbal there, but only found manufacturing equipment and some documents indicating that these were being sent to Gujarat for sale.
The forensic report revealed the sanitzer comprised 57% ethyl alcohol and 2.5% isopropyl alcohol.
Liquor is usually approximately 40% ethyl alcohol, while isopropyl alcohol, typically used as a disinfectant and antiseptic, is toxic and dangerous for human consumption.
"We found some customers were drinking this hand sanitizer. We discussed the contents of this liquid with doctors and learned that it is not fit for human consumption. If somebody drinks two or three bottles a day for 15 days, it can severely damage their liver," said Nitesh Pandey, superintendent of police, Devbhumi Dwarka district.
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Pandey said there's no law that prohibits a kirana store or paan shop from selling hand sanitizer.
"The manufacturer supplied these bottles to provision store owners for sale as liquor. They were also told that if police approached them, they were to say they were hand sanitizer," he added.
Police arrested two provision store owners, Savdas Popaniya and Chirag Thobhani, along with a driver, Akram Nazir. A fourth suspect, the supplier Lagdhirsinh Jadeja, who was link between the Vasai factory and the store owners, is at large.
According to police officials, the shopkeepers not only sold the liquid but also told customers it could be drunk for intoxication.
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