CB-CID files chargesheet in Vengaivayal caste crime case, CPI(M) demands CBI probe

Chennai, Jan 24 (PTI) The Tamil Nadu Crime-Branch CID has completed the probe into the 2022 Vengaivayal case pertaining to mixing of human faeces in an overhead water tank for the SC/ST and filed a chargesheet against three persons, a senior police official said on Friday.

However, CPI(M) Tamil Nadu secretary P Shanmugam claimed the present chargesheet was 'unacceptable' as it accused members from the affected community. He appealed to the state government to hand over the case to the CBI for an impartial probe.

"The reason cited for the mixing of faeces in the drinking water tank (at Vengaivayal in Pudukottai district) is unacceptable. The CB-CID is constrained to close the two-year-old case. The CB-CID's accusation that the affected community was responsible for the crime is not proper," Shanmugam said in a statement here.

Earlier in the day, the CB-CID filed an affidavit in the Madras High Court stating that it filed a chargesheet against three persons in connection with the case. It indicated that the incident was due to personal enmity between the accused persons and the husband of the panchayat president.

The case was initially registered under the SCT Act and the present chargesheet did not mention any offence under the said Act, advocate G S Mani, representing the petitioners, claimed.

Unaware of the contamination, the villagers consumed the water and some of them, including children, took ill in December 2022. Doctors who treated them at the Pudukottai government hospital alerted the villagers about the possible contamination of the drinking water.

Following this, the residents examined the water tank only to find human faeces, much to their shock.

The case was initially probed by the Pudukottai district police and later transferred to the CB-CID.

Expressing shock over the naming of three persons from the SC community as 'accused' in the chargesheet, ruling DMK's ally, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) president Thol Thirumavalavan, urged the trial court not to accept the chargesheet.

"The Tamil Nadu government should hand over this case to the CBI for detailed investigation. All the three people identified as criminals and named in the CB-CID's chargesheet belong to Scheduled Caste," Thirumavalavan said.

It was shocking that the police were alleging that the SC people were the criminals in that case. "This is unacceptable. We urge the trial court not to accept the chargesheet submitted by the CB-CID and appeal to the state government to transfer the case to the CBI for further investigation," he said in a statement. PTI JSP KH