A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Home Secretary and Director-General of Police (DGP) to crack down on bars attached to Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) liquor shops and prevent the sale of spurious liquor.
The PIL petition is expected to be listed for hearing before a summer vacation bench of Justices B. Pugalenthi and V. Lakshminarayanan on Thursday. R. Boomiraj, an activist from Coimbatore, has filed the PIL in the wake of a number of deaths reported in the State due to the consumption of spurious liquor.
The petitioner said, in recent days, many persons are reported to have died in Chengalpattu, Villupuram and Thanjavur districts after the consumption of liquor. Cyanide poisoning has been suspected in the deaths of two individuals who had consumed liquor purchased from the State-run liquor shops in Thanjavur.
In order to prevent further deaths, the petitioner sought a direction to the police to inspect all Tasmac retail liquor shops and seize spurious liquor bottles. He also insisted on having the sale of liquor in all Tasmac outlets across the State, banned, until the disposal of the PIL petition.
