Ongole: Methanol-based sanitiser caused deaths

Ongole: Prakasam district SP Siddharth Kaushal said on Tuesday that the spurious hand sanitiser made with methanol was the reason behind the death of 16 people in Kurichedu in the district in July. He announced the arrest of 10 people for illegal sourcing of the chemicals, manufacturing and distribution of sanitiser to medical shops and selling bottles to the alcohol-addicted people.

The SP said that 16 poor people from different sections died at different intervals from July 29 to 31 in Kurichedu village under suspicious conditions. The police registered a case under Section 174 of CrPC and started investigation.

The SIT team formed under the leadership of OSD Markapuram K Chowdeswari, DSPs of Darsi and Markapuram K Prakasa Rao and G Nageswara Reddy, Inspectors of Podili, Darsi and Addanki, V Sreeram, Md Moin and A Anjaneya Reddy as members, started an investigation immediately.

The SP said that the SIT collected sanitiser bottles of eight brands from different scenes of crime and suspected a firm named Perfect Gold as the details printed on labels are proved to be false.

While continuing the searches in sanitiser manufacturing companies in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the police found a supplier of the Perfect Gold sanitiser. After tracing the supplier to Hyderabad, they reached the manufacturer Sale Srinivas, a native of Siddapuram village in Vikarabad district having factory at Jeedimetla.

The SP said that Srinivas studied not more than Class VI, but has knowledge of petrochemicals as he worked in petrol bunks for a long time. As the demand for hand sanitiser is increasing due to Covid-19, he started manufacturing it with methanol on the suggestion of two chemical dealers in a small room without any licence.

Kesav Agarwal, who knew about the hand sanitisers made by Srinivas, became a distributor of the same for high profits. Based on the evidence, the SIT arrested Sale Srinivas, Sale Siva Kumar, Kesav Agarwal, Mohammed Dawood, and Mohammed Hazi Saab for making spurious and dangerous liquid and selling it in the name of hand sanitiser.

The SIT also arrested the medical shop owners, Telaprolu Sudhakar Rao, Devathi Phani, Kolisetty Ramesh, Kolisetty Subba Rao and Thommandru Suresh Kumar for selling the hand sanitisers for the alcohol addicts in Kurichedu, even though they know that the people are consuming the liquid.

Siddharth Kaushal explained that several reasons like enforcement of lockdown, non-availability of alcohol in Kurichedu and five mandals around it helped the liquor addicts in the village to start consuming sanitisers. The medical shop owners sold the just brought Perfect Gold sanitisers to the victims for a couple of days, and it took 16 lives.

The commissioner of SEB Vineet Brijlal said that while people were using sanitiser as one of the weapons in the war on Covid-19, criminals are using the same as an instrument to make money. He said banning sanitisers is not the solution but increasing vigilance and early detection of the people addicted to sanitizers would help family members and friends in saving the lives of such persons.

He said they were submitting a report to the government on the irregularities of the departments involved and need of measures to save the public from consuming other substances for alcohol. The assistant commissioner, SEB, N Surjit Singh, additional SP SEB Moka Sattibabu and CI STF P Veerendra also participated in press conference.