An interim report submitted by a one-man commission highlights tardy investigation being conducted by Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) into the December 26, 2022 incident of human faeces found inside an overhead tank that supplies water to Scheduled Caste residents of Vengaivayal in Pudukottai district, the Madras High Court said on September 14.
To get today’s top stories from the State in your inbox, subscribe to our Tamil Nadu Today newsletter
Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu made the remark after perusing the interim report of Madras High Court retired judge M. Sathyanarayanan. Additional Advocate General (AAG) J. Ravindran had submitted the report before the first Division Bench in a sealed cover during the hearing of two public interest litigation petitions seeking a CBI probe.
The AAG told the court that on March 29, 2023, the then Acting Chief Justice T. Raja (since retired) and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy had passed an interim order on the two PIL petitions appointing the retired judge to the one-man commission to probe into the issue. Accordingly, the commission had made inquiries and submitted its interim report recently.
When the judges wanted to know why it had been filed in a sealed cover, the AAG said, the report had already been submitted to the State government but no other person, including him, had gone through its contents. He also submitted a separate status report filed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police with respect to the progress made in the investigation so far.
“We have examined as many as 251 witnesses and subjected 25 suspects to DNA tests. The test results of four more suspects are yet to be received,” Mr. Ravindran told the court. The DSP, in his status report, said, the case was being investigated from all angles such as political, communal and personal and that the culprits would be nabbed soon.
However, after expressing displeasure over the case not having been solved even after eight months and no arrests having been made so far, the judges adjourned the matter to November 7 after finding that the PIL petitioners’ counsel were not present for the hearing. They called for a further progress report from the police on the next date of hearing.
The High Court Registry was also directed to keep the interim report of the commission in safe custody.
