The tippers in Covai were in for a rude shock on Saturday when a weaver found a dead lizard floating inside a brandy bottle that he purchased from a TASMAC outlet near Annur.

The issue came to light when he decided to take it to the media after the TASMAC staff refused to take the complaint from him.

Thangavel from Ellapalayam, had purchased the 180ml of the Day Night Brandy produced by the Midas Golden Distilleries (P) Ltd form the TASMAC outlet number 2204 located at Sathy road in Ganeshapuram.

When he tried to open the bottle on Sunday, he had found a dead lizard inside the sealed bottle. Shocked, Thangavel approached the outlet officials and demanded a response.

“The officials refused to consider a complaint from my side despite showing them the lizard floating inside the brandy. Hence I moved Court. Subsequently they approached me and requested me to withdraw but I did not comply,” he said.

He has also sent a legal notice to TASMAC asking them to respond in Court. A higher official from TASMAC claimed that they had approached him and asked him to surrender the bottle for inquiry. However, Thangavel had refused.

“Even the representatives from Midas Golden Distilleries approached him and forced him to return the bottle for analysis but he denied ,” the official requesting anonymity told Covai Post.

However, activists point out that such incidents occur due to loop holes at the distribution level. This is not surprising as snakes, frogs and cockroaches have also been found in the TASMAC bottles. The frog was found last month in Chennai, they echo.

“This could not have happened at the point of manufacture. This usually happens when the customer buys the product before or after TASMAC hours,” said A Manoj, an RTI Activist.

Stating that the complainant cannot establish that he has purchased the brandy at that particular TASMAC outlet due to the absence of a bill, Manoj said that the outlet staff can blatantly deny that the lizard floating brandy was purchased at that particular outlet.

“Akin to Kerala, where the billing is done in one counter and delivery in another, TN should also follows suit for the welfare of the tippers” he added.

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