On 3rd July, the Tamil Nadu government informed the Madras High Court that the 2024 Kallakurichi hooch tragedy cannot be compared to the two 2023 hooch tragedies at Chithamur in Chengalpattu district and Marakkanam in Villupuram district because the methanol source and quantity were different. Notably, the report was submitted following the court’s request for a thorough action report on the subject during the hearing of appeals for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation.
Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena stated in a status report submitted to the first Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq that the methanol content in the samples was found to be 99.1% in the 2023 instances while it was only between 8.6% and 29.7% in Kallakurchi. The report alleged that within five days of the incident, 21 people including six retail sellers, seven transporters, and eight suppliers as well as assistants had been taken into custody. Furthermore, around 700 litres of illegal goods were nabbed and three First Information Reports were filed in relation to the matter while 132 witnesses were questioned.
He claimed that the government formed a one-man commission led by a retired judge to look into the matter and district officials were either suspended or transferred in the wake of the tragedy in Kallakurichi. A bill to amend the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act was introduced and passed in the assembly to raise the length of imprisonment and fine for offenders.
Speaking about the actions the government took in response to the 2023 occurrences, the Chief Secretary claimed that widespread raids against fake alcohol and illegal arrack were carried out throughout the state, resulting in the arrest of 95 additional people as of May of this year and 159 people in 2023. He also enumerated the steps performed since 2021 to combat offences against the restriction.
The Chief Secretary, meanwhile, also disagreed with the demand for a CBI inquiry, arguing that the Crime Investigation Department’s (CID) investigation had already advanced sufficiently. A Central Bureau of Investigation investigation into the hooch tragedy, which claimed at least 65 lives, was sought by attorneys representing the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in a court filing. Shiv Das Meena claimed, “Transfer of the case to the CBI is not to be resorted to routinely but only to be used in rare circumstances where the investigation was found by the courts to have failed.”
The Chief Secretary refuted the charges that despite the local AIADMK MLA’s complaints about illicit brewing in the area prior to the occurrence, no action was taken to avert the catastrophe, asserting that no records on the matter could be located despite searching numerous station houses and local authorities for a considerable amount of time. However, later information from the assembly disclosed that the speaker had turned down a calling attention motion that the MLA had submitted.
According to Shiv Das Meena, the speaker rejected a call attention motion made by AIADMK Kallakurichi MLA M. Senthilkumar on 29th March 2023, concerning the sale of counterfeit alcohol. As a result, the issue was not brought up in the Legislative Assembly and no notice of it was given to the relevant authorities. He defended the speaker and claimed, “Kallakurichi MLA had sought the permission of the Hon’ble Speaker to move an Attention Notice in the Tamil Nadu assembly. It appears that the same had been disallowed, and hence the matter was never discussed in the Assembly, nor was notice of it received by the government authorities.”
He further added, “Hundreds of Call Attention Motions are submitted to the Assembly Secretariat and the Hon’ble Speaker, depending on the seriousness and accuracy of the information that permits discussions. When the rest are rejected, the government hardly ever receives information unless the Hon’ble Speaker forwards it. In this case, as stated above, it was not done.”
The report was submitted in response to two public interest litigation petitions asking for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation that were filed by Pattali Makkal Katchi counsel K. Balu and AIADMK advocate I.S. Inbadurai. Following the submission of the status report by State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohamed Jinnah, Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran requested an extension for Advocate General P.S. Raman’s attendance as he was unable to appear in court since his mother Kalpakam Raman had died earlier on the same day, according to the AAG.
The justices granted his plea and postponed the hearing on the two PIL petitions until 10th July (22nd July per other reports). Meanwhile, lawyer A. Mohan Doss also requested a CBI investigation into the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy in a separate Public Interest Litigation filed in the High Court. On 18th June, a hooch tragedy occurred in Karunapuram hamlet in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district, resulting in at least 65 deaths and 118 hospitalizations.
