CHENNAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered a CB-CID (Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department) probe into the Sangamviduthi village water tank incident. The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that cited a complaint of mixing cow dung in an overhead tank in Sangamviduthi village in Pudukkottai district in Tamil Nadu.

The division bench of Justices P Velmurugan and K Rajasekar ordered the CB-CID probe and posted the matter on June 5.

Shanmugam of Pudukottai filed a Public Interest Litigation in court, stating, "There was a complaint that cow dung was mixed in an overhead tank in Sangamviduthi village on April 25. Many people who drank this water became ill.

The case does not appear to have been properly investigated. In Pudukkottai, the two-tumbler system is still practiced. Scheduled caste people were not allowed to drink from the same tumblers used by those from the intermediate castes. SC people were asked to sit in separate places and they were also not allowed to use common ponds and community halls."

He also demanded that the government be directed to provide adequate compensation to the villagers and eliminate all forms of caste discrimination in the district. The case of mixing human faces in a water tank at Vengaivayal, also in the Pudukkottai district, is yet to be closed, and another incident of water contamination by mixing cow dung was reported in Sangamviduthi village.