MP Excise Flip-Flops on Sagar Gold Before Spurious Liquor Killed 12

The Madhya Pradesh Excise Department issued contradictory orders in the days leading up to the suspected spurious-liquor tragedy in Sagar district, where the death toll has reached 12. Internal communications show the department first directed officials to stop the sale of the implicated brand, Sagar Gold, and seize stock for testing — only to withdraw that directive hours later, stating that no further action was required.

The sequence began with a newspaper report on September 3 questioning the quality of locally supplied liquor. Two days later, the government foreign liquor warehouse in Sagar examined two bottles of 'Bombay Whiskey' featured in the report. Officials concluded the bottles conformed to packaging standards and were fit for consumption, identifying the manufacturer and noting supply through the government warehouse to shops in Sagar and Damoh.

Excise Commissioner Deepak Saxena has acknowledged that this verification was based on photographs of the bottles rather than a field inspection. He said the suspended officials should have physically inspected the premises, arguing that a field visit could have detected the counterfeit Sagar Gold in time.

On September 6, as the first deaths were reported, the Assistant Excise Commissioner in Jabalpur issued a strict order: all shops receiving Sagar Gold were to be inspected, the liquor was not to be sold, suspected stock was to be sealed and seized, and samples were to be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory. Sale was to remain prohibited until purity was established.

Within hours, that order was revised. Assistant Excise Commissioner Sanjeev Kumar Dubey issued a new directive stating that the Jabalpur control room had found the presence of Sagar Gold in the district to be 'negligible'. The revised order called for routine inspections and action against illicit liquor manufacturing, but explicitly stated that 'no other action is required'.

Police have since uncovered a suspected interstate supply chain linked to Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh. Three FIRs have been registered, 14 of 30 accused arrested, and several people remain hospitalised. Three excise officials have been suspended and another senior officer removed from the Sagar setup. The government has ordered an inquiry.

Saxena said enforcement has been stepped up across the state, with flying squads readied and directions issued to all deputy commissioners for continuous surveillance.