Court unhappy with probe into Sivakasi fire

MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Monday expressed displeasure at the police over the shoddy probe into the killing of nine people in the fire accident at Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district on October 20 and not paying compensation to the families of the victims.
The fire broke out when crackers were being unloaded resulting in the death of eight people at an adjacent scan centre the same day, including patients and staff.A doctor at the scan centre, who was in a coma after the accident, succumbed to injuries on October 24.
The high court bench took up this accident as a suo motu public interest litigation. On October 26, the court ordered interim compensation of Rs 3 lakh each to the families of the victims before November 25 and adjourned the case.
On Monday, when the case came up for hearing before the division bench of Justice S Nagamuthu and M V Muralidaran, the government submitted the police report. After perusing it, the court expressed displeasure. "The main purpose of the investigation is to unearth the truth and ensure that the real culprits are brought to light. But, the report shows the police are not focusing on it. Nine people were killed in the fire accident. Police were unable to arrest the first accused. Instead of it, the report has accused the officials of commercial tax, revenue and municipality violating the procedures," the bench said.
It then asked, "How many officers are investigating the case? Besides, the case diary was not properly maintained. Police have recorded statements of officials of the municipality using laptop, but the mentioning of which was absent. Mandatory things are not followed. Have you paved the way for the accused to get acquitted?" When the court asked about the payment of compensation, the government said that it would disburse the amount soon. Following that, the court sought a fresh report and adjourned the case.
Meanwhile, the court directed two cases relating to violation in granting licences to the fireworks shop in Karur and Trichy, to Chennai for further hearing.