I bought enough poison to kill 10,000 people. Anyone can, online

Try buying sleeping pills or a particular brand of cough syrup without a doctor's prescription; it's not easy. But what if we told you that buying bulk quantities of a lethal poison is so much easier?

You have probably heard about two recent incidents in Mumbai.

On April 26, the Dokadia family died mysteriously, allegedly after eating some watermelon. The police kept scratching their heads. How could something as harmless as watermelon kill four people? Forensic examination later revealed traces of poison in their bodies.

On June 26, a man called Fayyaz Premji tried to poison thousands during a Muharram procession. He was caught distributing “painkiller” capsules to the mourning crowd. After being arrested, he told the police that he had about 15,000 such capsules filled with a highly toxic powder — and that he actually intended to kill as many Muslims as possible.

What’s the common thread here? It’s the kind of poison: zinc phosphide, a compound most commonly used in rat-kill pesticides.

We tried to find out how difficult it is to buy this potent poison online, especially in bulk. Did Fayyaz Premji have to jump through a lot of hoops to procure enough to make 15,000 poison capsules? We also wanted to know if anything had changed since these two recent cases gained national attention.

Turns out, it’s as easy as buying chocolates.

You can buy as much as you want. It will be delivered to your address. No verification. No paperwork. All you need is the requisite money. And even that’s a low bar. It’s not an expensive poison: just Rs 500–1,000 per kilogram depending on the vendor, brand, and the quantity you buy.

On B2B portals like Indiamart and TradeIndia, you can order zinc phosphide in quantities as huge as 1,100 kg. We contacted four such online sellers. Two of them readily agreed to deliver 50 kg of zinc phosphide at a fake address we provided them — without any verification.

NO GST? NO PROBLEM

We enquired about buying 50 kg of zinc phosphide on various websites that sell the chemical compound. Within hours, a representative from the Mathura-based Anand Trading Company contacted us.

Initially, he asked us for our complete billing address and a GST number. We gave him a fake business address and asked if a GST number was mandatory for the transaction. “It’s your choice,” is what we were told.

The representative suggested we buy zinc phosphide from a “good brand” like Ratil, which would cost Rs 1,000 per kg. He sent us photos of Ratil containers and even tried to upsell: 60 kg instead of our order of 50, just because they were sold in 20 kg containers. We said okay, and he immediately sent us a UPI QR code for payment.

When we revealed who we were and confronted him about not following due process, he apologised and thanked us for “making him aware”. He promised not to repeat such a mistake. But he also quickly deleted the messages he had sent to us on WhatsApp, including the one about the GST number requirement.

Indore-based B & Brothers Barnagarwala, manufacturers of pest-control products, also responded to our query on Indiamart. A representative agreed to deliver 50 kg of Commando brand zinc phosphide for Rs 43,200.

When we asked her if a Form XIII needed to be filled out for the order, she said it is not necessary, and that they regularly dispatch orders like this. She also sent us a UPI QR code without asking for any identification details or a GST number.

As per the Insecticides Rules of 1971, all sales of insecticides made to licenced manufacturers, stockists, distributors, dealers, retailers, and — relevant to us — bulk consumers shall be “entered insecticide-wise, in a register in Form XIII.” This document, however, is maintained by sellers, not buyers, and they are supposed to submit this to the relevant authorities.

CAN ANYONE BUY IN BULK?

According to Adish Aggarwala, a Senior Advocate and the former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, zinc phosphide is a regulated chemical under the Insecticides Act, 1968, and the Insecticides Rules, 1971. Therefore, it “should not be sold or supplied casually, particularly in bulk quantity.”

Aggarwala explained that in 1993, the rules under the Insecticides Act were made stricter to ensure safety. He said that authorised sellers must ensure that bulk buyers either have a valid licence or a very valid reason to buy such substances in bulk quantities. Sellers must also maintain records of buyers’ names, addresses, and other business-related details and report sales to the competent authorities.

“In my opinion, no prudent seller should supply 50 kilos of zinc phosphide online without proper identity verification, purchaser details, purpose of use, place of use, invoice, Form XIII entry where applicable, and end-use undertaking,” Aggarwala said.

A ‘CHUTKI’ IS ALL YOU NEED

Zinc phosphide is a greyish-black crystalline powder. It produces a garlic-like odour when it reacts to moisture. And according to Dr Harsh Sharma of the National Forensic Sciences University in Bhopal, phosphine gas produced from two to five grams of zinc phosphide can kill a person.

Zinc phosphide releases phosphine gas when it comes in contact with moisture or body fluids in the stomach. It causes nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, heart damage, liver failure, kidney injury, and seizures.

Dr Shiuli Rathod, assistant professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology at Lucknow’s King George's Medical University, told us that there is no antidote for zinc phosphide poisoning. Treatment is mostly symptomatic. People mostly die because of multi-organ failure if not given medical care in time.

Most people instinctively know that “rat poison” is also not good for humans. When dealing with pests at home, we take so many precautions. We keep it away from children. We make sure it doesn’t come into contact with our food. We wash our hands thoroughly after usage. But buying poison capable of killing 10,000 people should definitely not be as easy as buying a pack of rat-kill at your neighbourhood grocery.

Surprisingly, it is.

- Ends