Wed Jan 29 11:26:20 UTC 2025: ## Vengaivayal Residents Continue Protest Over Water Tank Contamination Case
**Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu, January 29, 2025** – Protests continued for a fifth day in Vengaival village over the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) report on the December 2022 incident where human faeces were found in the village’s overhead water tank. Villagers, primarily from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, maintain the report unfairly targets three individuals from their community.
On Wednesday, residents staged a silent demonstration, carrying black flags, demanding justice. Separately, 21 members of the Marxist-Leninist People’s Liberation Party were arrested for attempting an unauthorized march to the collectorate, demanding a High Court-led judicial inquiry.
A Special Court hearing on the case was adjourned until February 1st after the defense requested more time to secure legal representation and copies of the charge sheet. The CB-CID public prosecutor argued the case doesn’t fall under the SC/ST Atrocities Act, as both victims and accused belong to the SC community. This argument is central to the villagers’ ongoing protests.
First Piper 