Murder Mystery- HOOCH TRAGEDY 2008

HOOCH TRAGEDY 2008

Context

The Hooch tragedy is the most frequently discussed case in forensic toxicology. The incident happened in the southern states of India, i.e., Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the year 2008. The tragedy was encountered when around 180 people reportedly died due to illicit liquor consumption. This has been one of the most tragic methanol poisoning cases since the year 2000.

Incident

Hooch tragedy dates back to 18th May 2008 when number of people from Kolar district, Karnataka; Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu; Bangalore (rural & urban) drank illicit liquor (moonshine) with the composition of camphor and tobacco. The camphor and tobacco contents made the alcohol more poisonous with an end product as toxic methyl alcohol. This resulted in the death of around 156 people inclusive of 56 people from Bangalore urban, 27 from Bangalore rural, 41 from Krishnagiri and 32 from Kolar district. The people who were the victims of this incident complained about the symptoms of stomach pain and vomiting thus leading to their hospitalization. Several people even lost their eyesight due to poisoning. The main concept behind this whole approach is that people in India prefer cheaper illicit liquor than the Indian-made/foreign liquor as they are expensive massively. India, being a country where poverty in seen in majority, can only afford cheaper alcohol brands.

Observation & analysis

The death of the victims was highly devastating thus making it compulsory to conduct a complete medico-legal autopsy of 51 victims who consumed the poisonous alcohol. The victims were brought to Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital during May 2008. All information was collected from the Bangalore police personnel, police inquest, postmortem findings and hospital records and also the Forensic Science Laboratory reports. The incident was studied in detail and the medico-legal autopsy was conducted. Preserved blood analysis and chemical analysis of all the routine viscera collected during the postmortem was carefully conducted. The subsequent evaluated results are as under:-

• The average level of ethyl alcohol was 21.46 mg% and methyl alcohol was 14.53 mg% in the blood.

• Chemical analysis of blood and viscera revealed 7.84% (4 out of 51) were detected with the presence of Methyl alcohol only and about 92.16% (47 out of 51) were detected with the presence of both ethyl and methyl alcohol.

• It was concluded that 100% (51 victims) of the death was caused due to respiratory failure.

Police arrests and aftermath

Around 52 people were arrested by the police for producing and supplying the poisonous liquor. Four people from Bangalore rural district were arrested which included three suppliers and a vendor. It was stated by the police that the 3 suspects were arrested as their names were given out by the victims during the inquest procedure. Other arrests were further made in the due course of time.

The aftermath of this incident pictured out that the government of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka commenced an awareness campaign for the people to encourage them to not consume illicit liquor. Also, Tamil Nadu government stood up for the matter and suspended 21 policemen for this tragedy. It was later found that the Bangalore police arrested the tycoons of the illicit liquor production and supply network but the foremost supplier was found dead as he committed suicide.