In a house in West Godavari’s Jangareddygudem in Andhra Pradesh, a photo of a man on the wall catches the attention of all those who visit the house. The photo is of 62-year-old Kala Durga Rao who suddenly passed away in March this year, after consuming spurious liquor. He is survived by his wife and two sons. According to Rao’s son Satya Babu, his father regularly consumed spurious liquor. Before his death, Rao complained of blurry vision, burning sensation in the stomach, vomiting and was also profusely sweating. When Rao was rushed to a private hospital, the family was told that the deterioration in his health was the result of consumption of spurious liquor. A while later, Rao passed away.
The photo of Kala Durga Rao at his house
Anyone who enters Rao’s home cannot miss the photo on the wall. Tucked into the inner rim of the photo frame are four currency notes of Rs 200 denomination. Explaining why the family placed the currency notes inside the photo frame, Rao’s son said, “My father who worked in a rice mill did not have work daily. Whenever he did, he earned around Rs 1,000 for a day’s work. The day he died, he returned home with Rs 800 – the same four Rs 200 notes that we have placed inside the frame. He purchased spurious liquor with the remaining money he had earned that day. We decided to place his last earnings along with his photo.”
On the same day, and in the days that followed, many others in and around Jangareddygudem died after similarly consuming spurious liquor. The series of deaths in March this year put the spotlight on the menace of spurious liquor in Andhra Pradesh. Following the deaths, the District Collector and state Health Minister Alla Kali Krishan Srinivas declared that the people in Jangareddygudem town had died of various health complications and not due to consumption of spurious liquor. However, several families of the deceased and the opposition parties maintained that the deaths were due to the consumption of spurious country-made liquor. While around 18 people lost their lives in a week, the TDP maintained that the total number of people who died due to the consumption of spurious liquor stood at 27.
The Andhra Pradesh government decided to reduce the prices of liquor in the state in December 2021, based on suggestions from enforcement agencies. The prices had been hiked by the Jagan government in May 2020 by 75 percent, hoping to discourage people from consuming alcohol. However, the sharp increase in the price of liquor in the state, led to large-scale attempts to smuggle in liquor from neighbouring states of Karnataka and Telangana. Poor people who could not afford the expensive liquor rates began consuming illicitly distilled liquor and the demand for the country-made liquor began to see a steady rise. Despite the rates being slashed, the lure of cheap country-made liquor kept drawing people.
Speaking in the legislative assembly on March 14, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy called it a deliberate attempt to falsely portray the deaths in Jangareddygudem due to consumption of illicit liquor. The assembly witnessed unruly scenes, with the TDP MLAs disrupting the question hour, demanding a discussion on the Jangareddygudem deaths. The Chief Minister announced that the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) would crack down heavily on those making illicit liquor and assured that his government wouldn’t spare anyone manufacturing illicit liquor. He also went on to mention the steps taken by his government to regulate liquor consumption in the state.
An illicit distillation unit seized
The SEB was formed in 2020 specially to crackdown on illegal transportation of liquor and sand, and had made it to the news for their crackdown on marijuana in Andhra Pradesh. The operation saw large-scale destruction of marijuana cultivation in the tribal agency areas as part of Operation Parivarthana. The SEB decided to keep the same name for the new operation, and introduced Operation Parivarthana 2.0 – a more concentrated crackdown on illicit liquor and smuggling of liquor in the state.
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Around a month after the deaths in Jangareddygudem, on April 15, Operation Parivarthana 2.0 was thus born. According to statistics provided by the SEB, from April to the end of June, a total of 10,730 cases were booked for illegal distillation of liquor. A total of 1.24 lakh litres of illicit liquor was seized by the SEB in the same period and more than 500 vehicles were seized for being used in the transportation of illicit liquor in the state.
An illicit distillation unit
Donkeys being used to transport illicit liquor in Andhra Pradesh
Speaking to TNM, SEB Director Avula Ramesh Reddy said, “We have undertaken a multi-pronged approach which includes enforcement, awareness and providing incentives to deal with the menace of illicit liquor in the state. Several teams are working in tandem to ensure the success of this operation. Surveys were carried out to map the areas that are notorious for illicit distillation of liquor. These areas were raided and cases were booked by the SEB. The issue of illicit distillation of liquor has now been controlled to a large extent.”
“Usually, the fermentation process in the manufacturing of illicit liquor takes around 7-10 days. When the demand went up, the manufacturers hoped to step up production to cater to the demand. They soon began mixing ammonia and fertilisers to help speed up the fermentation process to complete it in two days. Distillation units began to be set up in areas wherever water was in abundance,” explained the SEB Director.
An awareness campaign being carried out in an Andhra village by the SEB
When TNM visited Jangareddygudem, officials at the SEB office in the town said the crackdown had helped eliminate the availability of spurious liquor in the villages. “We not only raided the manufacturing units, but also the shops selling illicit liquor. We also identified the shops selling jaggery and warned them not to sell jaggery in bulk quantities. We are keeping an eye on these shops,” explained the SEB incharge inspector at Jangareddygudem. Jaggery is used by illicit liquor distillers to make jaggery wash, an ingredient for brewing the liquor.
Jaggery seized from an illicit distillation unit
A makeshift tank for Jaggery wash fermentation
Illicit liquor sachets seized by the SEB officials in Srikakulam
Before the prices of liquor were slashed in Andhra Pradesh, SEB was cracking down on vehicles carrying liquor from neighbouring states into Andhra on a daily basis. If data from six months before and after the reduction in price of liquor is considered, then it can be concluded that the number of cases booked for smuggling of liquor has nearly reduced by half. The number of accused caught by SEB from June to December 2021 was 15,726 and it reduced to 3,816 between January and June 2022. Similarly, the number of vehicles seized by SEB for smuggling liquor reduced from 3,888 to 789. The numbers prove that the smuggling of liquor from neighbouring states has considerably reduced after the prices have been slashed by the Andhra government.
According to SEB, nearly 2,196 villages in Andhra Pradesh were prone to illicit distillation of liquor. Ever since Operation Parivarthana 2.0 started, more than 1,000 villages have been converted to green, which means the menace of illicit distillation has been completely eradicated. Ankapalli, East Godavari and Kakinada had the most number of villages that were prone to illicit distillation of liquor, while Guntur district had the least. In 1,178 villages the distillation of illicit liquor has been controlled, but they have been kept on observation to ensure that manufacturing doesn’t resurface.
While the government and investigating agencies declared that the deaths in Jangareddygudem were ‘natural’ and not connected to consumption of spurious liquor, the families of many of the deceased were left in disbelief. They are yet to get justice and also closure. The families which were initially told by doctors that their loved ones died due to alcohol toxicity, were not even handed a copy of the post mortem report. “We know of families that were threatened by officials to accept that their family member died a natural death. My wife was also threatened to give in writing that the death was not due to consumption of spurious alcohol. However, we stood our ground and refused to give in. We were not given any ex-gratia payment from the government,” said Satya Babu, son of Kala Durga Rao. Nearly four months after the incident, the families of those who died in Jangareddygudem still await justice and hope that the people responsible for the deaths will be punished.