Vengaivayal case: CB-CID names Dalits as accused; allies, litigant accuse police of cover-up

CHENNAI: In a major twist in the controversial Vengaivayal incident where human faeces was thrown in an overhead tank from where water is being supplied to families from Scheduled Caste, the Crime Branch CB-CID filed the status report accusing three people from SC community of being involved in the case.

This triggered instant objection from the advocate appearing in a public interest litigation over the case, alleging that the State government was trying to dilute the sensitive, communal issue by accusing people from the SC itself as offenders.

The report was also condemned by the VCK and the CPM, both allies of the ruling DMK and part of the INDIA bloc, who accused the police of trying to protect the actual culprits and closing the two-year-old case.

When the PIL moved by Rajkamal and Marx Raveendran seeking to CBI probe came for hearing before the first division bench of Chief Justice KR Shriram and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Friday, Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran submitted CB-CID’s status report. In that, the agency said it was a trio – Muraliraja, Sudharshan, and Muthukrishnan – who mixed faeces in the water tank.

According to the investigators, Muraliraja had an enmity with Muthukadu panchayat (comprising Vengaivayal and Iraiyur villages) president Padma's husband Muthaiya over the dismissal of water tank operator Shanmugam.

To create trouble for Muthaiya and Padma, Muraliraja, with the assistance of Sudharshan and Muthukrishnan, threw faeces in the water on December 26, 2022.

The CB-CID team interrogated villagers, analysed 196 mobile phone numbers and data from 87 cellphone towers, and examined 392 witnesses before filing the charge sheet against the three accused before the special court in Pudukkottai on January 20, said the AAG.

However, appearing for one of the litigants, Marx Raveendran, advocate GS Mani strongly objected to the status report, terming it an attempt to dilute the communal issue by accusing people from the same community as offenders. Rejecting this, he also objected to revoking the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, from the case.

Also Read: VCK, CPM call for CBI probe in Vengaivayal case

The lawyer then sought a direction from the court to investigate and find out the real offenders who did the crime. After the litigant objected the status report, the bench allowed him to file a counter in this regard within six weeks and posted the matter March 27 for further proceedings.