Retired judge M Sathyanarayanan will be conducting a probe into the incident of contaminating tank potable water with human excreta in Vengavayal village of Pudukkottai district. A division bench of the Madras High Court comprising acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders on March 29 on a public interest litigation petition that sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe. The single-person commission will likely begin its investigation on May 6 and will be submitting its report within two months.
It has been nearly four months since human faeces was found in the water tank that provided water supply to the Vengavayal Dalit colony. The incident came to light on December 24, 2022, after the government doctors advised the residents of the colony to check water contamination as many children who hailed from the Dalit colony had fallen sick. Initially, the case was investigated by the Pudukkottai district police. The case was transferred to the CB-CID (Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department) on January 14. But Vengavayal Dalits alleged that the CB-CID investigation made no progress and the sleuths tried to target the victims instead of finding the accused who mixed human excreta with the drinking water.
After 11 persons from Vengavayal and neighbouring villages were summoned to give blood samples for DNA test. Eight Dalits skipped the test saying the test was to frame them for caste discrimination meted out to them. Two of the Dalits who skipped the DNA test approached the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court to quash the directions given by the special court for the DNA tests. A special court in Pudukkottai issued directions on April 18 to collect the blood samples of 11 persons.
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