The Madras Excessive Court docket on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy that claimed the lives of 68 individuals earlier this yr. The courtroom additionally raised issues over the Tamil Nadu authorities’s dealing with of the case and questioned the police’s capability to conduct a good and neutral investigation.
The tragedy, which unfolded in June and July, uncovered systemic failure in curbing the sale of spurious liquor and introduced allegations of collusion between regulation enforcement and prison components. The Second Division Bench, comprising Justices D Krishnakumar and P B Balaji, highlighted evident lapses in governance and expressed disappointment over the reinstatement of suspended police officers, together with the previous Kallakurichi Superintendent of Police (SP) Samay Singh Meena.
Justice Krishnakumar, who’s quickly to imagine workplace as Chief Justice of the Manipur Excessive Court docket, authored the judgment, describing the state’s causes for reinstating Meena as Deputy Commissioner of Police (Site visitors) simply weeks after his suspension as unconvincing. “This cause doesn’t reduce ice with this courtroom…,” he wrote.
The courtroom famous the potential of Meena influencing ongoing investigations inside the police division, even whereas posted to a non-sensitive place.
The judgment was additionally important of the state’s failure to behave decisively towards different officers doubtlessly complicit within the tragedy. Justice Balaji, concurring with the senior choose, discovered it “jaw-dropping” that the sale of spurious liquor occurred so near police stations.
The Bench mentioned that the magnitude of the tragedy, spanning a number of states together with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Puducherry, required an neutral investigation past the purview of the state’s Crime Department-Felony Investigation Division. “This is without doubt one of the rarest of uncommon instances which warrants a good and neutral investigation by the CBI,” the courtroom mentioned, ordering the state police to switch all case recordsdata to the central company inside two weeks.
The courtroom famous the lengthy prison file of the prime accused, Kannukutty alias Govindaraj, who had been booked in 17 prohibition instances since 2009 however continued his illicit commerce. The courtroom mentioned this makes it clear that there’s benefit and substance within the stand of the writ petitioners that Govindaraj has an unholy nexus with the police officers.
Whereas Tamil Nadu Regulation Minister S Regupathy mentioned the directive to switch the case to the CBI would solely delay justice and that the federal government has carried out unprecedented measures to deal with such points, the AIADMK basic secretary Edappadi Okay Palaniswami urged the federal government to chorus from interesting the order. BJP state president Okay Annamalai and PMK chief S Ramadoss additionally welcomed the order and blamed the state authorities for mishandling the case.
