A commission that investigated the police firing on those protesting against the Sterlite Copper plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi in 2018 has recommended action against 27 personnel, including the former district collector and deputy tahsildars, The New Indian Express reported, citing a report tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday.
On May 22, 2018, thirteen protestors were killed and hundreds were injured in the police firing after demonstrators sought closing down of mining company Vedanta’s smelter that produced 4,00,000 tonnes of copper per annum. Activists in Thoothukudi had alleged that the plant, which was set up in 1996, was contaminating the region’s air and water resources.
Vedanta denied the allegations, but the Tamil Nadu state government ordered to permanently shut down the plant a week after the shooting.
The findings of the commission, led by former Madras High Court judge Justice Aruna Jagadeesan, said the police should have avoided use of firearms, while also noting that there may have been some circumstances justifying the move. The decisive question, the panel wondered, is whether avoiding firearms would have resulted in “greater harm”.
“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 said.
The panel also noted that the firing on the protestors was unprovoked and said Inspector General of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav, Deputy Inspector General of Police Kapil Kumar C Karatkar and Superintendent of Police P Mahendran, among others should be held accountable. These officers held the posts when the shooting took place and have been replaced.
“The totality of the facts and circumstances would not suggest that the police had been acting in exercise of the right of private defence,” the report said, according to PTI. “As a matter of fact, it is not even the version of police.”
The commission also sought departmental action against Venkatesh, who was the Thoothukudi district collector at the time of the incident. Sekar, who was the deputy tahsildar (election), along with Divisional Excise Officer Chandran and Zonal Deputy Tahsildar Kannan should also face departmental action, the panel recommended.
“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 said, according to The New Indian Express.
The former judge said the lack of effective coordination between the police and the district administration allowed “the situation to go from bad to worse”.
The report added:
“There are materials in the shape of ballistic report that the shooting was long range shooting and not short range which is suggesting of the fact that the police went into hiding in the heritage park inside the collectorate wherefrom they have opened fire resulting in the casualties and grievous injuries to the protesters. Does it deserve a comment that is a dastardly act, the commission is left to wonder.”
The Justice Aruna Jegadeesan Commission recommended that enhanced compensation of Rs 50 lakh should be paid to the relatives of the victims after deducting the amount of Rs 20 lakh already given. “As for the injured, the commission recommends a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each, less the amount of compensation of Rs 5 lakh already paid to them,” it said.
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