Onus on hooch tragedy will be on police, district SP, says TN CM
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday told the Assembly that the onus on the hooch tragedy will be on district police superintendent and local police official and accused the opposition AIADMK of raising the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy to conceal its dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections and crisis within that party. Asserting that the state government has nothing to hide about the Kallakurichi spurious liquor incident, he said the opposition party’s demand for CBI probe was uncalled for as his government has acted swiftly on the incident and arrested the offenders, shifted officials, constituted an enquiry commission and ordered a probe by the Crime Branch CID.
"We created a situation where no one can escape," the chief minister added. "Despite all these efforts, that too within 24 hours, the AIADMK is insisting on a CBI enquiry. We have nothing to hide unlike the Sathankulam custodial death (in Thoothukudi district in 2020) case during the previous AIADMK regime," Stalin said, winding up the debate on the demand for grants to home department, a portfolio he holds. The DMK then sought a probe by the CBI as the previous AIADMK government "concealed and distorted facts" on the Sathankulam incident, he said. In addition to prompt action in the Kallakurichi incident, he had sternly warned that hereafter the district police superintendent and local police official will have to take responsibility if any hooch death occurs in their jurisdiction, the chief minister said.
The AIADMK, he said, frequently raised the issue in the House and disrupted the proceedings as it was frustrated over its defeat in the Lok Sabha election, losing all seats it had contested. "The AIADMK engineered the Kallakurichi incident to conceal its defeat in the elections and crisis within the party," Stalin, who is the president of the DMK, said. Likewise, the government was taking all efforts to completely prevent the movement and sale of narcotics, he said. "I am standing before you with the pride of having won all 40 seats (39 in TN and the lone Puducherry constituency… Though it was a parliamentary election, the opposition parties targeted me and criticised this Dravidian model government," Stalin said.
But the people overcame the opposition’s false propaganda and gave a decisive victory to the DMK combine, he said amidst thumping of desks by the treasury benches. The poll results showed the confidence the people had on the DMK government and the victory was an acknowledgment to the people-friendly initiatives of the DMK, he said and thanked the people for the mandate. On the 2017 Kodanad heist-cum-murder case which occured during the AIADMK regime, the chief minister said 268 witnesses were examined so far and 8 cell phones and 4 SIM cards used by those accused in the case have been sent to the Coimbatore Forensic Laboratory. An 8,000 page report has been received in this case. Since an overseas call was made during the occurrence of the crime, it has been decided to seek Interpol’s help. Taking parting shots at the AIADMK on the concluding day of the brief assembly session, the chief minister said, "I feel sad over the AIADMK’s stand on Kallakurichi. It was not prepared to discuss the issue in the House and had only disrupted the assembly proceedings. Unlike the AIADMK, the DMK in the past had conducted itself as a responsible opposition party."
