After Sagar tragedy, Madhya Pradesh Police uncover hooch racket with Delhi link

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After at least 20 people died earlier this month in a hooch tragedy in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, the police have uncovered a Statewide counterfeit liquor manufacturing cartel with links to Delhi, officials told The Hindu on Saturday (September 19, 2026).

According to officials, 14 people were arrested over the previous two days. Among them was the owner of a chemical company in Delhi, who is accused of supplying industrial spirit to those involved in manufacturing counterfeit liquor.

Investigating the first two information reports (FIRs) filed in connection with the tragedy that affected villages in the Banda and Shahgarh tehsils, police have added 22 more people as accused, bringing the total number of accused in the cases to 52. Of these, 37 people have been arrested so far in police raids across various parts of the state, including Sagar, Morena, and Gwalior, officials said.

Sagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Anurag Sujania stated that the police also seized several items used in the manufacturing process of counterfeit liquor. These included 11,050 empty bottles, 900 bottles filled with such liquor, four dyes used to print brand labels, a machine used to seal liquor bottles, and large amounts of packaging raw materials. These items were seized during various raids.

The police had earlier arrested multiple people accused of being involved in a conspiracy to make and supply counterfeit liquor. The latest arrests include those accused of manufacturing the liquor and arranging raw materials. Among those in Sagar police custody is Anupam Giri, the owner of the Delhi-based RN Chemicals.

Two of the prime accused, Manish Lodhi and Sidhharth Kushwaha, both owners of government-licensed liquor shops and accused of supplying spurious liquor through their shops, continue to remain absconding. Mr. Sujania said various teams were working to nab the remaining accused.

The SP said the accused were making counterfeit liquor under the name of ‘Sagar Gold’, a popular liquor brand in the district. He added that the accused had been involved in making counterfeit liquor using toxic materials in several districts of the State in the past. 

“During interrogation of the arrested accused, it came to light that this type of illegal liquor manufacturing activity has been carried out on a large scale in several districts in connivance with other people in the past. Since the sole objective of this gang was to make huge profits, they used to make fake and substandard liquor from whatever intoxicating liquid was easily available to them. They used to choose such places where so-called well-off strongmen had dominance, so that the common people could not get information about their activities,” Mr. Sujania said. 

Sagar Additional SP Narendra Solanki told The Hindu that a gang from Morena, headed by key accused Dinesh Shivhare, had been called to manufacture counterfeit liquor in Sagar’s Tatarwara village by local accused persons such as Chandrabhan Rajput alias Chandu Raja, a Karni Sena leader. 

Mr. Solanki said that it was Chandrabhan Rajput who had invited Shivhare and his associates to Banda to make the liquor in his village, after Shivanjay Rajput, a 21-year-old accused from Sagar, connected the two. 

“Dinesh Shivhare and his associate Devendra Jatav had also consumed the liquor and fallen ill. Their associates admitted them to a private hospital in Sagar. But as soon as they realised that it was their liquor that caused this, they got Dinesh discharged and headed for Morena. He died on the way while Jatav lost his vision,” the Additional SP said. 

Mr. Solanki said that based on the inputs from questioning, police teams were sent to Gwalior and Morena, where six accused, including Dinesh Shivhare’s brother Lalit Shivhare, were arrested and manufacturing items were recovered.  

He said that an accused held from Morena, Bunty Sharma, who has been involved in making counterfeit liquor in the past, had connected Dinesh Shivhare to the chemical supplier in Delhi. 

“When we investigated this lead, we traced the drums to Delhi. A team was then sent to Delhi. The logistics company there did not have the sender’s details, but we got the vehicle number from the CCTV footage and traced the driver, who then led us to Anupam Giri. He is currently being interrogated about his source and how long he has been supplying toxic chemicals for such uses,” Mr. Solanki said. 

The tragedy in Sagar had come to light with the death of 11 people on September 6. The official death toll in the tragedy is 20, but local reports claim the number is higher. The tragedy has also caused partial to complete vision loss in several of those who consumed the liquor.

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