CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday appointed a one-man commission headed by a retired judge of the court to probe into the shocking incident of contaminated drinking water with faecal matter at Vengaivayal village in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukottai district.
The first bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders appointing retired High Court judge Justice V Sathyanarayanan as the head of the commission to probe the incident which led to widespread outrage in the State.
The bench also directed the one-man commission to hold the inquiry and submit a report within two months. The order was passed on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by advocate Rajkamal, who is a member of Tiruvallur-based NGO Tamil Kalaikalam Trust.
He had alleged that the ongoing investigation was a “farce” and an “eyewash” and blamed the investigating authorities for acting without a real intention to bring the culprits before the court.
The petitioner further stated that if a fair investigation can be held, it would bring forward the atrocious activities of the caste organisations which have been wielding enormous power in the district.
He wanted the court to order for CBI probe in order to ensure a fair probe and avoid loss of public confidence.
When the matter came up for hearing on March 21, Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran submitted that a fair probe was being held by the CB-CID which had examined 147 witnesses so far but they had given contradictory statements.
He also handed over the case diary to the court.