Desperate To Get Some Booze, Father-Son Duo In Tamil Nadu Makes Wine At Home, Gets Arrested

Over the past one-and-a-half months what did Indians miss the most? If the sheer number of people queuing up in front of liquor shops on Monday is anything to go by it is alcohol. Since morning liquor shops across the country that were opened on Monday saw massive long lines of customers, who had been there waiting for hours to by liquor.

Reuters

But for many others, they could not wait till the lockdown ended and out of desperation resorted to making it themselves. A father-son duo in Tamil Nadu too was so desperate to get some alcohol, they decided to make grape wine.

Three people including the father and son were arrested from Chennai while they were preparing grape wine. Following a tip-off the cops conducted searches, and about 30 litres of grape based wine and five litres of another intoxicant -popularly known as ¡®sunda kanji¡¯, which is a gruel made from ingredients like rice and left to naturally ferment were seized from their residence.

BCCL/ FILE

Since March 24 evening, state-run TASMAC liquor outlets are shut in Tamil Nadu.

While it was still a conventional idea, a resident of Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh had probably the craziest idea to get some alcohol. He allegedly tried making liquor from sanitizer liquid. Alcohol is the main constituent of hand sanitizers.

The accused, identified as Indal Singh Rajput made liquor from a sanitizer which contained 72 percent alcohol.

There are also any number of incidents since the lockdown began where people were caught trying to make moonshine, due to the unavailability of liquor.

However, the unavailability of liquor due to the lockdown took a tragic turn in Kerala where six people committed suicide due to extreme alcohol withdrawal symptoms. That is two deaths more than the number of people who died of COVID-19 in Kerala so far.

BCCL

The alcohol withdrawal had become such a huge issue in the state that the government proposed to make it available for people who could not live with, based on a doctor's prescription. The idea was, however, scrapped due to protests from the medical community. The state which has the highest per capita liquor consumption in India had also proposed the online sale of alcohol in Kerala, which also failed to materialize.

Interestingly, Kerala is one of the few states that has not allowed liquor sales to resume even now. The government took the decision citing the chances of large crowds gathering in one place.