'No motive under SC/ST Act': Vengaivayal case transferred from special court

TIRUCHY: Pudukkottai special court on Monday transferred the case relating to the dumping of human faeces in the overhead drinking water tank at Vengaivayal, a Dalit village, in Pudukottai district in 2022 to a judicial magistrate court citing that there is no motive under the SC/ST Act.

Judge GM Vasanthi of the special court that tries cases under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 ordered that the case be transferred to the Judicial Magistrate Court-II, Pudukkottai. She also ordered those seeking copies of the CB-CID’s final report to file a petition at the judicial magistrate court.

The CB-CID, investigating the case of Vengaivayal, recently submitted a charge sheet against three persons of the Dalit colony and clarified that there was no room for caste issue but a personal enmity between Muthukadu Panchayat president Padma’s husband Muthaiah and the accused behind the incident.

However, political parties including the allies of the ruling DMK Left parties and VCK and pro-Dalit outfits rejected the report and appealed to the court not to accept the CB-CID charge sheet claiming that it was a framed report. Later, one Kanagaraj filed a petition seeking to nullify the report. At the same time, the CB-CID submitted a petition with the special court to transfer the case to the Judicial Magistrate court as the persons involved in the case were from the same community.

Public Prosecutor KN Kumar later told the reporters that the court found no motive under the SC/ST Act. The CB-CID would therefore submit the charge sheet to the Judicial Magistrate Court and the court would summon the accused and a copy of the charge sheet would be distributed to them.