8-30 per cent methanol in hooch; no need for CBI probe: TN to Madras HC

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday told the Madras High Court that preliminary tests of samples of illicit arrack, consumed by the victims of Kallakurichi hooch tragedy, showed that they had 8.6% to 29.7% methanol composition. A status report, filed by Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena through Additional Advocate General J Ravindran before the first bench of Acting CJ R Mahadevan and Justice Mohammed Shaffiq, said that none of the well-settled circumstances under which the transfer of investigation to the CBI is ordered apply to the current hooch tragedy case. The top officer said the Kallakurichi hooch tragedy is a separate incident and not a sequel to the Villupuram and Chengalpattu incidents of 2023 where the content of methanol in illicit arrack was 99.1% and the source of methanol was also different. The officer said, “I am advised to state that transfer of cases from the state investigation to a central investigation by the CBI acting under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act is not to be resorted to routinely but only to be used in rare cases where probe was found by the Constitutional courts to have failed.”