Kallakurichi hooch tragedy: Madras High Court orders a CBI probe

Justices D. Krishnakumar and P.B. Balaji express disappointment over the Tamil Nadu government having failed to take stern action against officials, despite the loss of so many lives

The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy that claimed 68 lives in June and July this year. The court passed the orders after expressing disappointment over the Tamil Nadu government having failed to take stern action against the police and other officials concerned, despite the loss of so many lives.

The Second Division Bench of Justices D. Krishnakumar (the Chief Justice-designate of the Manipur High Court) and P.B. Balaji took note that though the then Kallakurichi Superintendent of Police, Samay Singh Meena, was suspended from service on June 19, the suspension order was revoked quickly and he was reinstated as the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Tambaram Commissionerate, on July 24.

The judges said the government had not cited any acceptable reason for revoking the suspension but for referring to a representation given by Mr. Meena to revoke the suspension and a recommendation made in his favour by the Director-General of Police. “This reason does not cut ice with this court and no material worth the salt has been produced before the court,” Justice Krishnakumar wrote.

“In other words, the materials produced before this court by the State would reveal that there is no acceptable reason for revocation of the suspension. Though the officer has been posted in a non-sensitive post, in the opinion of this court, the possibility of him attempting to influence the others in the department cannot be ruled out,” the senior judge on the Bench observed in his verdict.

Expressing deep anguish over non-initiation of severe action against officials who were either hand in glove with the sellers of spurious liquor or had miserably failed to prevent the sale happening right under their nose, the Bench said: “All these aspects cumulatively make this court think that there may not be a fair and impartial investigation by the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID).”

The judges also highlighted that the prime accused Kannukutty alias Govindaraj was a perpetual offender who had been booked in as many as 17 prohibition cases between 2009 and 2023 and convicted in nine cases. Yet, his continued indulgence in the crime “makes us believe that there is merit and substance in the stand of the writ petitioners that Govindaraj has an unholy nexus with the police officials,” they added.

Since there was also a possibility of raw materials for the spurious liquor having been procured from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Puducherry, the Bench felt that only the CBI, and not the CB-CID, would be able to investigate the case effectively and bring the culprits to book. “This Kallakurichi hooch tragedy case is one of the rarest of rare cases which warrants a fair and impartial investigation by the CBI,” it concluded.

Penning down additional reasons for concurring with the judgment authored by Justice Krishnakumar, Justice Balaji expressed surprise over how the sale of spurious liquor within a short distance from a police station could have gone unnoticed. He suspected that there could have been an unholy nexus between the police personnel and the accused involved in the sale of spurious liquor.

The Division Bench, however, accepted the argument of State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohamed Jinnah that the provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, could not be invoked in the case since the deceased belonged to different castes and communities and some of the accused too belonged to the Scheduled Castes.

The verdict was delivered on a batch of writ petitions filed by I.S. Inbadurai of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam; K. Balu of the Pattali Makkal Katchi; B. Parthasarathy of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam; A. Mohan Dass of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); and former MLA A. Sridharan. Senior Counsel N.L. Rajah, V. Raghavachari and advocates G.S. Mani, S. Janarthanan, and ‘Elephant’ G. Rajendran had argued for the petitioners.

Published - November 20, 2024 09:32 pm IST