PUDUKKOTTAI: “Only a sick and fickle-minded person could have been behind the incident,” remarked former Madras High Court judge M Sathyanarayanan on the dumping of excrement in the overhead tank at Vengaivayal last year.
Visiting the village in Mutukkadu panchayat for the first time on Saturday in his capacity as the court-appointed, one-man commission to investigate the water contamination case, Justice Sathyanarayanan inspected the tank in which excrement was found dumped on December 26 last year and the under-construction OHT that would now supply water to the residents largely hailing from the SC community. District Collector Kavitha Ramu and SP Vandita Pandey accompanied him.
Addressing reporters at the Collectorate, Sathyanarayanan said, “The investigation is in the preliminary stage and I have sought details from the departments concerned. I will be coming back in two weeks and would be staying in Pudukkottai for the investigation. I have not yet decided on holding inquiries with the villagers.”
Pointing to the ongoing CB-CID investigation into the case, the judge said, “The incident had no eyewitnesses and circumstantial evidence can be gathered only by scientific methods, which the CB-CID is doing. We have to give them some time. This is a cognisable offence and so no time period can be fixed for the investigation.”
On eight of the first batch of 11 suspects called by CB-CID not turning up for DNA testing last month, he said that none can be forced to take it up. “They (the suspects) have the right to refuse and in such a scenario the law has to take its own course,” he added.
Further, mentioning that he has been given two months’ time to investigate the case and submit a report on it, Justice Sathyanarayanan said that he shall do so.