None of circumstances for CBI probe apply to Kallakurichi hooch tragedy: TN govt tells HC

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that none of the well-settled circumstances, under which transfer of investigation to CBI was ordered, apply to the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy case that has left over 60 dead.

Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena stated this in his status report filed before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice R Mahadevan and Justice Mohamed Shafiq, in response to the petition filed by AIADMK legal wing secretary I S Inbadurai and K Balu, president of Advocates Forum for Social Justice. They sought a CBI probe into the crime/offence, sale of illicit arrack by accused person in Kallakurichi district on June 19, in which 65 persons died.

The bench posted to July 11, further hearing of the case at the request of Additional advocate general J Ravindran, seeking time.

In his report, Meena said transfer of cases from the state investigation to the CBI, acting under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act was not to be resorted to routinely but only to be used in rare cases where investigation was found by the constitutional courts to have failed.

In the instant case, the unfortunate incident was less than two weeks old and sufficient progress has been shown.

"None of the well-settled circumstances under which such transfer of investigation is ordered apply to the current case", he added.

He said on the very same day, the state government extended a comprehensive all inclusive support system to affected families, including financial assistance, medical care and ongoing socio-economic support through various government schemes.

On June 19 itself, the case was transferred to CB-CID and it was re-registered in Villupuram. A one man commission headed by Justice B Gokuldas, a retired judge of the Madras HC, has been constituted, he added.

He said as on June 30, 65 persons have died. Due to the effective treatment given, the lives of 145 patients have been saved and they have been discharged from various hospitals.

In the cases related to 2023 incidents at Marakkanam and Chengalpattu, after diligent investigation and collection of all material evidence and examination of witnesses, final reports have been filed before the competent courts, Meena added.

In the above cases, the methanol composition in the source samples was detected as 99.1 percent. However, the preliminary examination of the samples obtained from Kallakurichi indicates methanol composition as 8.6 percent to 29.7 percent only.

"Hence the current Kallakurichi incident cannot in any way be considered as a sequel to that of 2023 incidents. This Kallakurichi incident is a separate one as earlier the source of methanol is different", he added.