CHENNAI: Two months after the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) closed the case pertaining to the killing of 13 anti-Sterlite protesters by the State police in Thoothkudi, human rights groups have urged the commission to re-open the case after the autopsy reports of the victims was leaked to the media.
The autopsy reports of 12 out of 13 protesters killed showed they were hit by bullets in the head or chest, and half of them were shot from behind.
Urging the NHRC to reopen the case, Henri Tiphagne, founder and executive director of Madurai-based human rights organisation People’s Watch, has told NHRC chairperson H L Dattu that the families of those killed in the firing had been denied post-mortem reports for seven months despite the Tamil Nadu government’s assurance to the Madras High Court that the reports would be handed over to the victims’ families.
Alleging that the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry had till now examined 90 witnesses and needed to examine 450 more witnesses which would take a minimum of one more year, Henri said the NHRC, before closing the case, should have insisted on asking for details of the disciplinary action initiated against those senior officers whose was responsible for the actions that followed leading to the killings and several hundred being injured.
“Till date there is no FIR that names any police personnel or officer responsible for the deaths that have occurred and for injuries to several hundreds of persons,” said Henri.“The Commission while putting the onus on the judicial commission formed by the government of Tamil Nadu has failed to use its own powers under the Protection of Human Rights Act, which is more wide and powerful than the terms of reference of the judicial commission formed by the government of Tamil Nadu,” he said.