A judicial inquiry into the June 2024 methanol poisoning tragedy in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district has concluded that the deaths of 70 people and lasting injuries to 161 others resulted from a nexus between illicit liquor sellers and police and excise officials. Headed by retired Madras High Court judge B Gokuldas, the commission examined over 400 witnesses for its 484-page report, which was tabled in the Tamil Nadu assembly. The inquiry traced a supply chain moving industrial methanol from an unlicensed Chennai chemical dealer through middlemen to arrack sold in rural Kallakurichi without the required licenses.
The report revealed that a bootlegger responsible for most deaths boasted that small monthly bribes to police and excise staff protected him. It also highlighted a teenage victim being turned away from a government hospital by staff who assumed he was only drunk. The commission identified structural failures including chronic police understaffing, the diversion of officers to VIP duty, and a lack of coordination between police and revenue departments.
Recommendations from the commission include departmental and criminal proceedings against officials who looked away, enhanced compensation for survivors with permanent disabilities, and support for orphaned children. It also called for legal changes to make enforcement officials’ dereliction of duty an explicitly punishable offense. While the state government had already provided compensation to victims’ families that the commission deemed prompt and adequate, the findings are expected to increase political pressure regarding the state’s prohibition policy and enforcement.