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 data is significant as prohibition enforcement faces renewed scrutiny following the death of 13 people after consuming spurious IMFL in Bhavnagar recently. Officials said the sample count includes cases routed through government hospitals, where suspected drunk persons are taken for medical examination and blood collection, and cases sent to forensic science laboratories (FSLs) for blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reports.“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. 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.Home department sources said ‘inconclusive’ results account for less than 1% of the total. Police patrol units also use breathalyzers as an initial check, they said. 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.Officials cautioned that the sample total does not equal the number of individuals caught. “The number includes multiple samples from the same person if the result is inconclusive. Thus, the actual number of persons apprehended would be different,” a source said.Senior officials pointed to what the numbers reflect about enforcement on the ground: alongside periodic large seizures targeting supply networks, a significant volume of action is tied to consumption without permits. They said the share of such cases is higher in major urban centres such as Ahmedabad and Surat and surrounding areas.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.
