The Madras High Court on Thursday impressed upon the need for the revenue as well as police officials to crack down on all those involved in illegal commercial exploitation of groundwater in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts.
Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad said the police were empowered to seize even borewells, lands on which they had been dug, the water drawn from those wells, the apparatus used and the vehicles in which the water was transported.
The judges pointed out that Justice S.M. Subramaniam of the High Court had already issued a direction to the police to register cases under Section 379 (theft) of the IPC against all those who exploit groundwater for commercial purpose.
In the wake of such a direction, Justice Prasad said, the police could seize even borewells by invoking their power under Section 102 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which states that any property suspected to have been used for commission for an offence could be seized.
The Division Bench also directed the Commissioner of Police, Greater Chennai to initiate a disciplinary inquiry against Nataraj, the Inspector of Pazhavanthangal police station for reportedly aiding some of the illegal water suppliers in Nanganallur.
The action was ordered pursuant to a report filed by advocate commissioner L. Chandrakumar stating that there were visible signs of illegal exploitation of groundwater by some private land owners in Nanganallur as well as Gowrivakkam village in Sembakkam municipality.
Though the accused had cut the water pipes and attempted to destroy evidence before the inspection, the photographs taken at the spot and the statements by neighbours would clearly prove drawal of 250 to 300 lorry loads of water per day from Gowrivakkam, he said.
In so far as Naganallur was concerned, the Inspector had been protecting the accused and issuing life threat to other residents. One of the accused had even attempted to kill the child of a complainant but the Inspector remained a mute spectator, the advocate commissioner said.
Stating that residents were scared of the groundwater mafia and were reluctant to complain openly, Mr. Chandrakumar informed the court that the Inspector had even questioned him for having conducted a discreet inspection of the area.
The advocate further claimed that a report filed by the inspector in the court last month giving a clean chit to the groundwater mafia was a false statement.