2000 Tiruvannamalai hooch tragedy: 5 get death

Judge G Maghizhendhi convicted and awarded death sentence to all the five, besides imposing a fine of Rs 5000 on each of them. 

The convicts were identified as Jayapal (33), Murugan (26) and Kaliappan (23), all residents of Nimmiyendhal village and Thillai Kannan (47) and Kumar (23), both from Padiyampattu. The deceased were all stone quarry workers. 

The incident was a fallout of business rivalry between two illicit arrack sellers. Shanthi (28) of Vilvarani near Kalasapakkam was a habitual arrack seller while Kamatchi (40) was her helper.  

Investigation revealed that Thillai Kannan, another hooch seller in the same region, was upset that their business was getting affected because of Shanthi. So, with an intention to get rid of her from the business, Thillai Kannan and his son deputed three men, Jayapal, Murugan and Kaliappan, to mix poison in the arrack sold by Shanthi. 

On May 23, 2000, as only 3.5 litres of the 10 litres of illegal liquor prepared by them was sold, Shanthi ordered Kamatchi to sell the rest and then left. Then the trio arrived at their shop and demanded gruel to drink. When Kamatchi went to get the gruel, the trio mixed poison in the liquor and left after drinking the gruel.

Stone quarry workers, who consumed the drink fell sick and were rushed to various hospitals. While eight persons, including two women, died the next day, another five succumbed a day later.

After the incident, two inspectors, two SIs and two head constables of the Kalasapakkam police station and the PEW were suspended.