Medical waste dumping: 23 truck drivers arrested

Coimbatore: As many as 23 truck drivers were on Thursday arrested for attempting to dump medical, plastic and rubber waste transported from Kozhikode and other parts of Kerala in Ettimadai here. The residents of Ettimadai and surrounding areas had on Monday captured the trucks and handed them over to the police.
On Monday, S Mohammed Iliyas, 50, of Palakkad in Kerala, had brought medical and other waste collected from various parts of Kerala to Ettimadai in 23 trucks.However, local residents captured the trucks and drivers while they were attempting to dump the waste in an agricultural field belonging to M Chellappa Gounder, 75, and informed the KG Chavadi police, who took over the case.
Following the incident, various political outfits had urged the district collector, T N Hariharan, to take stringent action against the truck drivers.
The preliminary investigation revealed that Mohammed Iliyas had taken on lease one acre of land from Chellappa Gounder.
Ettimadai town panchayat executive officer Valarmathi then lodged a complaint with KG Chavadi police sub-inspector V Ravikumar, who registered a case against Chellappa Gounder, Mohammed Iliyas, B Shabeer, 55, of Mysuru in Karnataka and Shaji from Kozhikode in Kerala under Section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code.
The police had arrested Mohammed Iliyas on Monady itself. He was later remanded in judicial custody. According to investigating officials, Shabeer and Shaji collected the waste from various parts in Kerala and sold them to Mohammed Iliyas. The duo is still at large. The police are likely to arrest Chellappa Gounder on Monday (October 31).
The arrested truck drivers, the police said, were remanded in judicial custody in Coimbatore Central Prison.
Police sub-inspector Ravikumar told TOI that armed policemen were deployed to guard the trucks seized in Ettimadai.
Police officials have, meanwhile, held talks with the district collector on disposal of the waste. Some officials suggested that the trucks should be send back to Kerala with the waste. However, the judicial magistrate court -VII will take a final call on the disposal of the waste on Monday.
A senior police official said all the trucks entered the state through the check post at Walayar. In this wake, police personnel deployed in the inter-state check posts were asked to tighten the vehicle check to prevent transportation of waste to the district.