Investigators will try to learn from them the source of methanol and also the whereabouts of those still wanted in the case.
Following the twin tragedies, the Tamil Nadu police cracked down on illegal sale of liquor. (Creative Commons)
The Chengalpattu Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court on Wednesday, 24 May, granted The Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) three days’ custody of 11 people arrested in the Ekkiyarkuppam hooch tragedy case.
On Wednesday, investigating officer Additional Deputy Superintendent of Police K Maheshwari moved the court seeking the custody of the 11 accused for seven days.
The accused — Amaran, Egambaram, Gunaseelan, Ezhumalai, Muthu, Arumugam, Ravi, Mannankatti, Robert Prem Kumar, Barkathullah, and Ilaya Nambi — were produced before the CJM on Wednesday.
Granting custody for three days, the judge directed the CB-CID to produce them back in the court before 5 pm on Friday, 26 May.
The CB-CID has booked them under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The accused were later taken to the CB-CID’s unit for interrogation.
CB-CID sources said the investigators would ask them the source of methanol and also the whereabouts of those still wanted in the case.
The CB-CID, which took over the case on 18 May, interviewed the Prohibition Enforcement Wing officers concerned and recorded their statements. The sleuths also arrested two persons on 19 May.
The twin hooch tragedies that hit Villupuram and Changalpattu districts in Tamil Nadu claimed 23 lives. Of the 49 people undergoing treatment in various hospitals, 41 were discharged as of Monday, 22 May.
Of the 14 killed in Marakkanam, 12 were from Ekkiyarpuram.
On 13 May, fishermen from Ekkiyarkuppam purchased and consumed spurious liquor from a local vendor named Amaran.
Those who consumed the liquor fell unconscious and were taken to the Villupuram Government Medical College Hospital, the Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), and the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
In the subsequent days, 14 people, including a woman, died at the hospital.
After the incident, 11 police officers — including Chengalpattu SP Shreenatha — were placed under suspension and the police, under the monitoring of DGP C Sylendra Babu, cracked down on illicit liquor sales across the state.
Following the incident, Chief Minister MK Stalin announced a solatium of ₹10 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund to families of the deceased and assistance of ₹50,000 each to those undergoing treatment.
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