The death toll in the Methanol-laced liquor tragedy in Bhavnagar reached 11 on Saturday afternoon, with three more men losing their lives to the tainted drink that has affected people in at least three talukas as the perpetrators made 25 cartons of the deadly concoction, and sold 300 bottles containing the toxic chemical to unwitting victims.

While several bottles were seized by police from the retail bootleggers, investigators have still not confirmed how many bottles are still in the market.

The Bhavnagar District administration on Saturday declared the names of three more men who lost their lives during treatment, two of whom were admitted to a hospital in Bhavnagar and one in Surat.

Those declared deceased due to Methanol poisoning on Saturday were Hardik Haresh Kilji (36) and Avinash Kanti Parmar (54), both of whom were under treatment at Sir Takhtasinhji General Hospital in Bhavnagar; and Sanjay Lakshman Dodiya, who was in a hospital in Surat.

The doctors at INS Hospital declared Dodiya “brain dead” on Friday afternoon and the doctors confirmed cardiac death on Saturday. Subsequently, doctors from the Forensic Medicine Department (FMD) at New Civil Hospital (NCH) carried out a postmortem on Dodiya. The body was later handed over to his family members late on Saturday for carrying out final rites.

Sources said that Sanjay Dodiya, who was working as a security guard with a polytechnic college in Surat, had been to his native place in Bhavnagar and returned on August 17. Dodiya, father of two kids, a son and a daughter, faced health complications on his return to Surat and was admitted to a private hospital by his family members. For the last three days, he was admitted to INS Hospital after his health deteriorated and was kept on ventilator support.

Surat NCH Resident Medical Officer (RMO) Dr Ketan Naik said, “The postmortem on the body of Bhavnagar spurious liquor tragedy victim Sanjay Dodiya was conducted here in Surat. We have collected some samples from the deceased’s body, which have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory to determine the exact cause of death.”

Status of the investigation The FIR in this case, based on a complaint by Inspector SB Padheriya on August 18, booked 21 persons for culpable homicide not amounting to murder among other sections of the BNS and Prohibition Act.

The FSL testing showed that one of the bottles of IMFL in this case contained 38.59% Methanol and only 0.94% Ethanol. Methanol is highly toxic to the human body and is not an ingredient in licensed liquors.

By August 21, 14 of the accused had been arrested by the State Monitoring Cell (SMC) who were handed the investigation on August 19 on the orders of Gujarat Police DGP GS Malik.

With Narendrasinh Yadav alias ‘Doctor’, who is believed to have brewed the deadly drink that caused this tragedy, dead by Methanol poisoning himself on August 18, this leaves a total of 6 accused yet to be arrested as of August 22.