Ahmedabad: Dry Gujarat processed 1.89 lakh samples in the past year in cases linked to illegal liquor consumption under the Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949, according to home department figures. That averages 518 samples a day—about one sample every three minutes!
“The blood sample must have alcohol content above 0.05% (50 mg per 100 ml of blood) for a person to be booked under prohibition law. For cases under the Motor Vehicle Act—drunk driving—the threshold is 0.03%,” a senior police officer said.
Police patrol units also use breathalyzers as an initial check, they said. Once apprehended, the person is sent for a medical check-up and blood sampling; the sample is then analysed at an FSL, the official added. Prohibition cases form a major portion of the cases handled daily by state FSLs and a digitized system is put in place to streamline the process and bring in transparency and cut the delays, they added. In the wake of the Bhavnagar incident, police have stepped up raids against suspected illegal liquor networks, with officials reporting a rise in FIRs over the past few days.
Renewed Scrutiny of Prohibition Enforcement After Tragic Deaths
The recent deaths of 13 individuals in Bhavnagar, attributed to the consumption of counterfeit Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), have intensified scrutiny surrounding prohibition enforcement. Officials have confirmed that the data includes samples collected from government hospitals, where suspected intoxicated individuals are examined and have their blood drawn, as well as cases sent to forensic science laboratories (FSLs) for blood alcohol concentration (BAC) analysis.