The Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases Registered under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Pudukottai has issued an order to collect blood samples from 11 persons, to conduct DNA tests, in connection with the case relating to the mixing of human faeces in an overhead water tank that supplied water to Adi Dravidar families in Vengaivayal village in the district, in December last year.
The order was issued on Tuesday by the Special Court, based on a requisition filed by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch CID, Tiruchi Range, investigating the Vengaivayal case.
The court directed an assistant professor from Government Medical College and Hospital, Pudukottai to collect the blood samples from the 11 persons including three women, on FTA cards (chemically-treated filter paper) to conduct the DNA tests. The 11 persons are inhabitants of Vengaivayal, Eraiyur and Keezhamuthukadu villages. The CB-CID has already collected samples from the overhead tank in the village.
The Vengaivayal incident, which came to light in late December last year, was initially probed by the Pudukottai district police and subsequently transferred to the CB-CID in January this year by the Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police. CB-CID sources said since they took over the probe, their teams had interrogated over 140 persons. .
The sources further said consequent to the Special Court order, a date would be fixed for collection of blood samples by the assistant professor, and the CB-CID would take the 11 persons in for the blood collection. The DNA test is expected to be conducted in Chennai, the sources said.
The Madras High Court had also recently appointed a one-man commission led by its retired judge M. Sathyanarayanan to separately probe the incident.
