HC orders CBI probe into K,kurichi hooch tragedy that killed 67

THE Madras High Court has ordered a CBI probe into the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy that left 67 people dead, mostly from the downtrodden sections of society, exactly five months after the incident.

- R SIVAKUMAR

A division bench of Justices D Krishnakumar and P B Balaji passed the order on Wednesday on a batch of public interest litigations seeking a CBI probe into the incident that rocked the state on June 20. The petitions were filed by AIADMK legal wing secretary I S Inbadurai, leader of Lawyers, Forum for Social Justice K Balu, BJP's A Mohandass, former DMDK MLA B Parthasarathy, and former MLA Dr A Sridharan.

The bench directed the CBCID of the state police to hand over the case files to CBI ,n within two weeks and or- ' dered the latter to hold the probe in an expeditious manner and investigate all aspects of the tragedy. It noted that there is involvement of accused persons from the border states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Union Territory of Puducherry This prompted the court to ponder over whether CB-CID could effectively investigate the case and bring the offend-ers to book. The bench said it is indeed jaw-dropping, the contradictory statement of the district collector, who had denied reports of the hooch deaths on the very same day, and the suspension of the SP for failing to curb the sale of illicit arrack.