The Madras High Court on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 appointed a one-man commission led by its retired judge M. Sathyanarayanan to probe the incident of human faeces found in an overhead tank that supplied water to Scheduled Caste residents of Vengaivayal in Pudukkottai district in December last year.
Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the interim orders on a public interest litigation petition that insisted on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe. The judges called for a report from the Commission as expeditiously as possible and directed the government to provide necessary support.
The first Division Bench also directed Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran to ensure the retired judge was provided with logistics, clerical as well as other facilities for inquiring into the incident, independent of the ongoing Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) inquiry.
They adjourned further hearing on the PIL petition by two months to await the Commission’s report. Advocate K. Rajkamal of Tiruvallur district had filed the petition expressing dissatisfaction with the CB-CID for its failure to arrest even a single individual so far.
Senior counsel P.V. Balasubramaniam told the court that it was nearly three months since the human faeces were found in the 20,000-litre overhead tank which supplied drinking water to around 200 Scheduled Caste families and yet the police were clueless about the miscreants despite the transfer of the probe to the CB-CID.
On the other hand, the AAG told the court that the investigators had examined over 147 witnesses and there were contradictory statements. After hearing both sides, the judges decided to appoint a retired judge to look into the issue and call for an independent inquiry report.
