Malwani Hooch tragedy: It’s official, what they drank was just methanol and water, say Cops

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“We initially began investigating with the assumption that the hooch had all the three basic components  water, illegally brewed liquor and spirit, which could be either ethanol or methanol. However, with the first five arrests, the investigations took a new direction, after Francis D’Mello, the local supplier who used to supply hooch to the den runner, told us that the hooch was only methanol diluted with water. The focus after this did not just remain on hooch but turned towards methanol,” said a Crime Branch officer.

D’Mello, in his interrogation, has allegedly told the police that he combined methanol with water and added cardamom essence to it to mask the strong flavour of the spirit, and sold it as hooch. The Crime Branch then tracked the supply of methanol into the city and went to arrest Mansoor Latif Khan, who supplied the methanol to D’Mello, and Kishore Patel, who sold the methanol to Khan.

Khan had initially claimed that they had been selling diluted ethanol in the name of hooch, and that he had no idea that he had supplied methanol this time. The claim, however, was nullified after the Crime Branch interrogated Patel, and confronted Khan and D’Mello with the information that Patel had revealed.

“Adding illegally brewed liquor to the hooch comes with a degree of expense, as those who supply it have to brew it in distant locations and transport it into the city, which involves running the risk of apprehension and greasing the right palms, and hence charge a fair amount of money. Around six to eight months ago, DMello and his co-accused decided to simply do away with the liquor ingredient, saving themselves a considerable expense and thus increasing their profits,” said another Crime Branch officer.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Atulchandra Kulkarni added, “For several months, the accused were only selling ethanol diluted with water as it was more affordable. Roughly two months ago, due to the relatively easier availability of methanol, they switched to selling methanol in water. This time, the dilution of the methanol turned out to be inadequate, which led to the deaths.”

gautam.mengle@expressindia.com