The Madras High Court on Tuesday began hearing final arguments on a batch of writ petitions seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the 2024 Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, which had claimed as many as 68 lives.
Appearing before Acting Chief Justice D. Krishnakumar and Justice P.B. Balaji, senior counsel V. Raghavachari said the tragedy could have been averted if the State government had properly exercised its powers to invoke the Goondas Act against the bootleggers.
Representing AIADMK’s former MLA I.S. Inbadurai, who was one of the litigants seeking a CBI probe, the senior counsel said that hooch tragedies were not new to Tamil Nadu. He recalled that 46 persons had died after consuming spurious liquor near Hosur in 1998.
The investigation in that case was handed over to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID). After 18 long years, the trial court acquitted all the accused in the case in 2014 and it was solely because of shoddy investigation conducted by the State police, the counsel claimed. He accused the State government of having failed to take stern action against the bootleggers even after the death of 22 persons in the 2023 Marakkanam and Chengalpattu hooch tragedies. Therefore, it was only fit to transfer the probe into the Kallakurichi tragedy to the CBI, he argued.
“People must have faith and confidence in the agency that is probing the case. When there is lack of faith and when the State itself had transferred the Collector and suspended the Superintendent of Police after the tragedy, it is a clear sign of something having gone amiss,” he said.
‘Recurring phenomena’
In his submissions, senior counsel N.L. Rajah, representing PMK advocate K. Balu, said that shoddy investigation by the State police in every other hooch tragedy was the reason for such incidents having become a recurring phenomena. He said that no one, including the State, had found a solution to the problem.
“There is collective frustration and anger being bottled up only to be released till the next tragedy occurs. By and large, we have become reactive to tragedies; we are not proactive to the tragedies. This has to stop,” Mr. Rajah said, insisting that a probe by a central agency alone could put an end to the menace.
Stating that a nexus between the State police and the bootleggers could not be ruled out, and there were also inter-State ramifications due to reports of methanol being procured from Puducherry and other places, the senior counsel said these were reasons enough for ordering a CBI/SIT probe.
On his part, Advocate General P.S. Raman said the CB-CID had made great progress in the investigation into the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy. The source of spurious liquor had been identified and the culprits arrested, he added.
He submitted the details of the investigation conducted so far in a sealed cover before the court.
However, since another litigant A. Mohandass of the BJP sought time for the appearance of a senior counsel to argue on his behalf, the judges adjourned the further hearing of the case to August 21.
