The Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) on Tuesday assured the Madras High Court of completing within three months the ongoing investigation into the incident of human faeces found in an overhead tank that supplied water to Scheduled Caste residents of Vengaivayal village in Pudukkottai district in December 2022.
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The submission was made after Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad expressed dissatisfaction over the probe not having been completed even after 15 months since the incident was reported. “Why does it take this long to complete the investigation? It cannot go on in perpetuity. You have to expedite it,” the Chief Justice said.
In response, a Special Government Pleader, on instructions from the investigating officer, told the court that so far the statements of as many as 337 persons had been recorded by the police and that the entire investigation would be completed within three months. The Division Bench recorded the statement and expected a final report to be filed in the case on or before July 3.
The judges also directed the High Court Registry to list after three months the two public interest litigation petitions filed by advocate K. Rajkamal and Marx Raveendran alias V. Raveendran seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the issue. The petitioners had expressed dissatisfaction over the CB-CID not having arrested even a single person till date.