CHENNAI: The police firing which claimed the lives of 13 anti-Sterlite protestors in Thoothkudi four years ago was unprovoked, according to the findings of Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry.
The police should have avoided the use of firearms, the report tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday noted. The report was unsparing towards the high and mighty. It is in-depth and eventually concludes that police used excessive force against the anti-Sterlite protesters.
The Commission, constituted to probe into the 2018 Thoothukudi firing during anti-Sterlite protests in which 13 people died and more than 100 were injured, had submitted its report to Chief Minister M K Stalin on May 18, 2022.
Recommendations
The panel recommended action against 27 police personnel, including Inspector general of police Shailesh Kumar Yadav, Deputy inspector general of police Kapil Kumar C Saratkar, superintendent of police P Mahendran, deputy superintendent of police Lingathirumaran, inspector Thirumalai, inspector Hariharan, Inspector Parthiban, sub-inspector Sornamani, sub-inspector Rennes among others. It also sought departmental action against the then-district collector Venkatesh for abdicating his responsibility on the whole issue.
Moreover, the Commission recommended necessary action against Sekar, then deputy tahsildar (Election), Thoothkudi, Chandran, Divisional Excise officer, Thoothkudi, Kannan, Zonal Deputy Tahsildar, Thoothkudi.
"The three special executive magistrates owe an explanation as to their lack of presence in their respective jurisdictions and allegedly moved on to other jurisdictions without any order from the district collector, sub-collector or the headquarters tahsildar in the process reducing to a mockery the proceedings of sub-collector designating them to different jurisdictions," the report stated.
The report stated that while there may have been some circumstances justifying the use of firearms but by avoiding such use will greater harm be occasioned is the decisive question. "The answer is of the two evils, the lesser evil is to be preferred and in the instant case the lesser evil is avoiding the use of firearms," the report affirmed.
"In the shooting incident inside the collectorate, five protestors succumbed to fatal injuries and a few others sustained grievous gunshot injuries. The protesters were unarmed and they indulged only in pelting stones at the police. There was no imminent threat to the life or limb of the policemen. Significantly, no policemen sustained fatal injuries or suffered any injury grave in nature except one Manikandan. All the policemen claiming to be injured, either the injuries were too minor to be taken note of or no injury at all except small swelling or tenderness," the report stated.
"As a matter of fact the vehicles parked at the collectorate and the Sterlite staff quarters were torched by the protesters enraged by the shooting resulting in deaths and it is not the other way about," the report stated.
"There was a total lack of coordination between the police officials in the hierarchy in as much as the shooting at the instance of DIG Kapil Kumar C Saratkar and deputy superintendent of police Ungathirumaran was not the knowledge of Inspector general of police, the highest in the hierarchy. Equally, the shooting indulged in by sub-inspector Rennes, purportedly on the instruction of sub-inspector Thirumalai was also not to the knowledge of IG," the report stated.
"This apart from the ace shooter Sufalaikannu opening fore on the instruction of Inspector general Shailesh Kumar Yadav as also deputy superintendent Lingathirumaran. This besides Shankar, the gunman of DIG shooting five rounds with a 9mm pistol on the instructions of DIG which again is not to the knowledge of the IG. Thus there is a spectacle of DIG disregarding even the presence of IG and arrogating himself the authority to issue directions for shooting," the report stated.
The report also recommended compensation of Rs 50 lakh to be paid to the kin or legal heirs besides deducting the sum of Rs 20 lakh already paid. For the injured, the committee recommended compensation of Rs 10 lakh each after deducting the amount of Rs 5 lakh already paid to them.
"The amount suggested by commission would be neither illusory nor on the higher side but realistic," the report stated. It also suggested compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the family of Justin Selva Mithesh, who sustained injuries due to a lathi charge and died two months after his examination before the commission.
Stating that the mother of one of the victims, Justin has studied up to standard VIII and was deprived of the love and affection of her son as also the contribution he was making to the upkeep and maintenance of the family, the government may be good enough to consider giving her employment commensurate with her qualification and suitability.
The commission has also provided the list of 13 deceased and 43 with gunshot wounds besides two sustaining grievous injuries in police lathi-charge.
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