Majitha’s Methanol Massacre: Punjab’s Liquor Mafias Thrive Amid Political Patronage, Police Collusion and Institutional Collapse

Unless Punjab dismantles politician-police-excise-mafia (s)quad and enforces accountability beyond token suspensions/symbolic arrests, these deaths will continue to repeat with cruel regularity.

By Karan Bir Singh Sidhu, Retd. IAS
The author is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer of the Punjab cadre and former Special Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab. With nearly four decades of experience in governance, law enforcement coordination, and public administration, he continues to write on issues of institutional accountability, systemic corrosion, and the socio-political challenges facing Punjab.

Majitha’s Methanol Massacre: 14 Dead, the Department Still in Denial

On the night of 12th May 2025, Punjab was once again forced to confront the bitter reality of its institutional failure. At least fourteen lives were lost in a single night in Majitha border block of Amritsar district—men from humble backgrounds, mostly daily wage labourers, consumed what they believed was affordable liquor, only to succumb to a poisonous concoction laced with methanol. Priced at ₹50–100 per pouch, this fatal drink was part of a larger, sinister supply chain operated with impunity by a known local supplier, Prabhjit Singh, who functioned under the alleged protection of police officials and political patrons.

The events that unfolded in the villages of Bhangali Kalan, Marari Kalan, Jaintipur, and Thariewal were disturbingly familiar. As grieving families conducted quiet cremations—some even before medical teams could arrive for post-mortem examination—the administration reacted with the usual theatre of damage control. The local SHO was suspended for ‘laxity’, a few arrests were promptly made, door-to-door medical surveys were initiated belatedly, and the Chief Minister’s office issued the standard rhetoric of ‘zero tolerance’. Adding political heat, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia, whose wife Ganieve Kaur Majithia represents the Majitha constituency, took to Twitter to castigate the government for its failure to prevent yet another avoidable tragedy. Yet, beyond the soundbites and circular blame, what remains undeniable is that the state’s response to such recurring horrors has become a well-rehearsed ritual of optics: too little, too late, and devastatingly performative.

This latest tragedy is not an isolated event—it is but another chapter in a grim and continuing saga. For more than five years now, spurious liquor deaths have surfaced with frightening regularity in Punjab. Despite the formation of Special Investigation Teams (SITs), Enforcement Directorate (ED) probes under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and public outcry, no major convictions have been secured. Not a single high-profile political figure or distillery owner implicated in these illicit networks has faced substantive legal consequence. The impunity is not incidental—it is structural.

The Pattern of Death: Tarn Taran, Sangrur, and Rajpura

• Tarn Taran-Amritsar-Gurdaspur Tragedy (2020)

  • Deaths: Between 104 and 130 individuals died after consuming methanol-contaminated liquor.

  • Key Figure: Rajesh Joshi, a Ludhiana-based paint shop owner, was identified as the principal supplier of industrial methanol.

  • Aftermath:

    • The ED registered an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) in 2020 to probe a ₹100 crore interstate smuggling operation.

    • Seven excise officials and six police officers were suspended, but no dismissals occurred.

    • The case was eventually transferred to ED headquarters in Delhi. No convictions have been reported.

• Sangrur Tragedy (2024)

  • Deaths: Twenty individuals perished, largely in the Dirba region.

  • Key Figures: Bootleggers Gurlal Singh and Harmanpreet Singh were found to be supplying an ethanol-methanol blend.

  • Aftermath:

    • An SIT was formed and 200 litres of ethanol were recovered, but no political or bureaucratic financiers were traced or interrogated.

    • The Punjab & Haryana High Court issued scathing observations, noting a “pattern of connivance with officials.”

• Rajpura Illegal Distillery (2020)

  • Scale: A counterfeit liquor operation worth an estimated ₹100 crore in just five months was discovered operating from an abandoned cold store.

  • Key Figures:

    • Dipesh Grover was arrested twice and granted bail both times.

    • Amrik Singh, a Congress-backed sarpanch and partner in licensed liquor vends, was similarly released on bail.

  • Aftermath:

    • The ED attached 12 FIRs under PMLA but failed to advance the probe beyond preliminary asset attachments.

    • NV Distilleries, fined ₹7.48 crore for regulatory violations, continued to operate with alleged political backing.

The ED’s Incomplete Crusade: Paper Trails, No Prosecutions

While the Enforcement Directorate has made ambitious claims about its nationwide crackdown on money laundering, in Punjab the outcomes remain elusive. Since 2020, the ED has attached properties and assets worth over ₹30,000 crore nationally under PMLA. However, its Punjab-specific investigations have yielded no major breakthrough. The ED unearthed illicit profit pipelines linking Rajpura and Ghanaur distilleries to interstate smuggling operations. Despite this, the lack of cooperation from local authorities and implicit political shielding of the accused meant that the investigations stagnated.

Notably, Sarpanch Amrik Singh—whose political affiliations were well known—was never subjected to custodial interrogation. Owners of NV Distilleries, linked to both Congress-era operators and financiers of a wide spectrum of political parties, continued to function unscathed and indeed with impunity. In private, ED officials— and some retired ones, openly— admit that any attempt to question politically connected distillery owners met with institutional stonewalling.

Law Enforcement: Between Apathy and Active Collusion

The state police machinery has repeatedly failed to prevent these tragedies, not due to a lack of awareness, but due to a wilful disregard rooted in complicity. Since 2020, a total of 14 SHOs and DSPs have been suspended across various districts for failing to act on bootlegging complaints. Yet, in every case, these officers were reinstated within months. In the 2024 Sangrur incident, residents of Dirba accused the local police of ignoring repeated complaints against Gurlal Singh’s operations. In Majitha, reports indicate that Prabhjit Singh’s operation was well known, and his weekly bribes to local police officials were treated merely as a cost of doing business.

The cruel farce of justice extends to the SITs themselves. They recover illicit stock, seize barrels of chemicals, and submit voluminous reports—yet fail to trace the command and control structure of the networks. Not once has an SIT report led to a high-level dismissal or prosecution, leading to conviction.

Excise Department: A Watchdog Turned Gatekeeper

The Excise Department’s role is perhaps the most damning. Charged with regulating Punjab’s ₹7,000 crore liquor trade, it has consistently failed to ensure compliance, allowing licensed units to divert ethanol, manipulate barcoding systems, and use fake holograms. The 2022 “track and trace” policy, touted as a panacea, was quickly rendered toothless by bootleggers who simply sourced counterfeit packaging from the black market.

That 15 Excise Inspectors were found unqualified in 2015 and yet retained, under the garb of nebulous court orders, speaks volumes about the Department’s disregard for regulatory integrity. Even when fines are levied—as in the ₹7.48 crore penalty against NV Distilleries—they amount to minor expenses in a business model that thrives on 1,000% profit margins.

Political Patronage: The Backbone of the Mafia

What makes the liquor mafia invincible is its deep-rooted political support. The cross-party nature of this patronage is no secret. In 2020, Congres MP Shamsher Dullo went on record to say that at least nine illegal distilleries in Punjab were operating with political blessing. Nothing came of this revelation.

In 2024, the Sangrur tragedy occurred in the incumbent Chief Minister’s home district, once again implicating figures linked to the political exposed personalities. The ED’s own records point to annual contributions of ₹20–30 crore by liquor syndicates to major political parties in Punjab. These financial relationships ensure that despite repeated deaths, no serious action is taken against the real beneficiaries of this lethal enterprise.

Border Security and the Nexus with Terror

Punjab’s position as a border state with a turbulent legacy of cross-border terrorism renders its internal vulnerabilities all the more dangerous. The state’s ₹20,000 crore drug economy has long been intertwined with illicit liquor operations, both relying on the same networks of smuggling, forgery, and political protection. Heroin sourced from Afghanistan and trafficked via Pakistan no longer travels alone. Increasingly, it is accompanied by industrial-grade chemicals such as methanol—diverted for use in spurious liquor manufacturing—which pass undetected through the same porous channels.

What has heightened the threat manifold in recent years is the surge in cross-border drone activity. The use of drones by Pakistani handlers to drop narcotics, arms, and even chemical substances into Indian territory has become a weekly, if not daily, reality. The Border Security Force (BSF) has repeatedly reported seizures and interceptions along the Sutlej river and through the dense, under-patrolled agricultural corridors of Ferozepur, Gurdaspur, and Tarn Taran. Despite these alerts, enforcement mechanisms have remained fragmented. Agencies operate in silos—excise points fingers at police, police defers to the ED, and the ED cites lack of cooperation from the state apparatus.

In this context, the Punjab Government’s recent decision to invest ₹54 crore in acquiring its own state-of-the-art electronic anti-drone interception systems marks a significant and welcome shift. For the first time, the state is not merely depending on central forces but building its own technological shield to counter aerial threats. This move has the potential to close a crucial gap in border surveillance and interdict the aerial supply chains that feed both narcotics and toxic liquor networks.

Yet, technology alone will not suffice. Without integrated intelligence sharing, coordinated operations, and above all, political will to uproot the patronage structures that shelter these mafias, the most sophisticated anti-drone grid may still fall short. Punjab’s border vulnerabilities must be viewed not merely as security breaches, but as symptoms of deeper administrative rot—one where internal corruption enables external threats to flourish.

Another Episode in Waiting? A State Drinking Itself to Death

A Ceasefire on One Front, Carnage on Another

The Majitha tragedy, therefore, is not just a grim reminder of a persistent menace—it is a body blow to Punjab’s fledgling gains in its war against drugs. As border villages had only just begun to exhale in cautious relief following the ceasefire under “Operation Sindoor”, and with blackout advisories still in effect as a security measure, this mass poisoning has sent fresh shockwaves across both urban and rural landscapes. It mocks the modest victories recently claimed by the state and underscores the reality that while one front may quieten, another remains wide open—unattended, unaddressed, and every bit as lethal.

The Real Battle Lies Within

Unless Punjab decisively dismantles the politician-police-bureaucrat-mafia (s)quad and enforces accountability beyond token suspensions and symbolic arrests, these preventable deaths will continue to repeat themselves with cruel regularity. A ₹50 pouch of poison will keep circulating, peddled with the tacit approval of those meant to halt it. The question now is not whether the system is broken—it is how many more funerals it will take before those in power admit that the real battle lies not just across the border, but also within our very own sovereign territory.