Panipat sugar mill workers died of methanol: Police

Mukesh Tandon

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Sonepat, December 25

With the arrest of two employees of the Panipat Co-operative Sugar Mill at Dahar village, the Sonepat police have claimed to have solved the case of death of four persons, including three employees of the mill, last month.

All four had died after consuming chemical methanol, also called methyl alcohol, after getting it from the sugar mill’s peon, who allegedly stole it from the mill’s laboratory, said Sonepat SP Himanshu Garg. Methanol is used to check the pH value of sugarcane products. Besides peon Jai Bhagwan of Mehrana, laboratory in-charge Madan Lal of UP was arrested on Friday.

The peon had given the chemical to three mill workers — Sunil and Ajay of Shamri village in Sonepat and their relative Anil of Burshyam in Panipat district. They all died after consuming the chemical. The three had shared the chemical with others too, including Surender of Shamri village. While Surender died, the condition of four others was critical after consuming the chemical on November 20.

The police had sent a sample of the chemical recovered from Ajay’s house and the chemicals from the sugar mill for testing.

After the FSL report, it was clear that all four persons died of consuming methyl alcohol, said the SP.