Kallakurichi hooch tragedy | Madras High Court reserves judgment on plea for CBI probe

Madras High Court reserves verdict on CBI probe into Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, highlighting recurring issue of hooch tragedies.

The Madras High Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on a batch of public interest litigation petitions filed for ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy that had claimed as many as 68 lives in June and July this year.

First Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice D. Krishnakumar and Justice P.B. Balaji deferred their judgment after hearing Advocate General P.S. Raman for the State government and senior counsel N.L. Rajah, V. Raghavachari and other advocates for the PIL petitioners.

While AIADMK former MLA I.S. Inbadurai, BJP advocate A. Mohandass and B. Parthasarathy of DMDK had insisted upon a CBI probe, Pattali Makkal Katchi advocate K. Balu had sought for a probe either by the CBI or by Special Investigation Team to be constituted by the court.

The petitioners had highlighted that hooch tragedies had become a recurring phenomenon in the State and argued that investigations conducted by the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) were not deterrent enough for the perpetrators of the crime.

On the other hand, the A-G contended that the court could order transfer of investigation to the CBI only if there were prima facie materials to suspect a nexus between the offenders and the politicians/police officers. He asserted that there were no such allegations in the present case.