Four arrested for tapping toddy; Seeman condemns

Trichy: Four people were arrested by the Samayapuram police for tapping and selling toddy illegally in Trichy.Police said the arrests were made during a routine patrol in Sakthi Nagar. The team caught four individuals red-handed while extracting and storing around five litres of toddy from palm trees on Friday.The accused were identified as S Duraisamy, 59, M Chinnaiyan, 57, P Ganesan, 44, and C Saroja, 53. During inquiry, they admitted to tapping and for sale.A case was registered against them under sections 4(1)(c) and 4(1)(i) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act. Three of the accused were remanded in judicial custody, police added. However, later in the night, around 50 members of the palm climbers association held a sit-in protest in front of the Samayapuram police station, claiming that false charges were filed against the climbers. Police registered a separate case under sections 189(2) and 292 of BNS and detained them.NTK chief coordinator Seeman condemned the arrest on Saturday. Taking to X, he said, "When the tapping of toddy remains unrestricted in several other Indian states, why does this prohibition persist exclusively in Tamil Nadu?" he asked.