The chargesheet was filed against 42 arrested accused persons, including a police constable. (File Photo)THE GUJARAT Police, in a possible first instance, especially in a prohibition case, had to use USB drives to share the chargesheet of the hooch tragedy investigation in Bhavnagar, with various officials as the length of the document is said to have exceeded one lakh pages.Sources told The Sunday Express on Saturday that the first chargesheet in the case was filed on November 5 in a Bhavnagar court, just 14 days before the 90-day time limit of three months in which the State Monitoring Cell (SMC) was required to file it in accordance with the law.The chargesheet was filed against 42 arrested accused persons, including a police constable. However, supplementary chargesheets in the case are inevitable as the SMC has shown that at least 10 other persons accused in the 14 deaths in Bhavnagar back in August this year, continue to be on the run and absconding from the law.Investigators told The Indian Express that the chargesheet included not just the roles of the various accused persons in the entire tragedy but also detailed the supply routes of the methanol from Delhi and other liquor packaging materials from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.The case pertains to the deaths of 13 persons and injury to more than 60, between August 14 and 23, after consumption of tainted alcohol that had 38.59 per cent methanol and 0.94% ethanol content.This latest toxic tragedy took place just four years after 42 of 100 affected victims died in 2022 across three districts in another “laththa kaand” centred around Botad district. Previous major hooch tragedies in Gujarat include 148 dead in Ahmedabad in 2009, 132 dead in Vadodara in 1989, and 101 dead in Ahmedabad in 1977.The FIR in this case, registered at Vartej police station of Bhavnagar on August 19, was based on a complaint by Inspector SB Padheriya. It booked 21 persons for culpable homicide not amounting to murder among other sections of the BNS and Prohibition Act. The case was then transferred to the State Monitoring Cell which is under direct control of the Gujarat DGP. IG Gagandeep Gambhir had been asked to supervise the case.Story continues below this adThe SMC arrested the first 13 accused persons on August 21, one more on August 22, and then 13 more including retail bootleggers on August 23. This was followed by one arrest on August 25 and 3 latest arrests on August 26, taking the total to 31 arrests.Thereafter, on August 31, the SMC arrested Rajdeepsinh Gajendrasinh Gohil, an Armed Constable with the Bhavnagar Police, taking the total arrested persons to 39.On September 7, the SMC arrested Manjeet Singh Krishanchandra Saini (43), resident of West Delhi, who allegedly made the fake bills for the methanol used for the toxic drink. The bills were allegedly made in the name of methanol thinner and not the chemical itself, which is a restricted substance in India. This arrest took the total to 40 arrests.With one more arrest in mid-September, followed by the apprehension of Ganesh Shyamlal Kharol on September 30, the number of total arrested accused persons stands at 42 till date.Story continues below this adOne of the main accused in this case, the alleged brewer of the tainted liquor – Narendrasinh Yadav alias ‘Doctor’ of Madhya Pradesh – died on August 18 after consuming the toxic product himself.Brendan Dabhi works with The Indian Express, focusing his comprehensive reporting primarily on Gujar... Read More