Thoothukudi firing report: Tamil Nadu acts against policemen and IAS officer

Tamil Nadu government has begun acting on the recommendations of the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission by placing under suspension a DSP and three policemen while initiating penalty proceedings against the then Thoothukudi district collector in connection with the police firing that killed 13 civilians.

The action by the government comes days after Chief Minister M K Stalin asserted on the floor of the Assembly that people responsible for the police firing on anti-Sterlite protests in Thoothukudi on May 22, 2018 will be brought to book. He said the government has launched disciplinary proceedings against policemen named by the Commission.

Thirumalai, who was then an Inspector attached to a police station in Thoothukudi city, constables Sudalaikannu, who was named in the report for firing as many as 17 rounds by wielding a self-loading rifle, Shankar, and Sathish have been placed under suspension for their role in the incident.

The government has also initiated “penalty proceedings” against N Venkatesh, the then district collector, following the Commission’s recommendation for disciplinary action against him. The Justice Jagadeesan Commission reserved the strongest criticism for Venkatesh accusing him of abdicating his responsibility.

Launching the penalty proceedings is the first step in acting against the IAS officer, government sources said. Venkatesh was criticised by the Commission for not participating in the peace talks organised by the district administration and not being present in Thoothukudi on the day the firing took place.

Besides Venkatesh, the Commission recommended action against 17 policemen, including then IG (South) Shailesh Kumar Yadav, DIG C Kapil Kumar, and P Mahendran, Thoothukudi SP, for their “acts of commission and omission departmentally without prejudice to launching criminal action.”

It is not clear when the government will act against the senior police officers mentioned in the Commission’s report.

In a four-volume report submitted to the government after a four-year-long inquiry during which hundreds of people deposed before it, the one-woman panel concluded that the “totality of the facts and circumstances” would not suggest that the police had been acting in exercising the right of private defence. It also said the firing was unprovoked.

As many as 13 civilians were killed in the police firing at Thoothukudi Collectorate and elsewhere in the town on May 22, 2018, as the 100-day old protest against expansion of Sterlite Copper owned by Vedanta turned violent. Following the violence, the copper smelter was closed.

Justice Jagadeesan noted that there was no intelligence failure but opined that proper action was not taken on the intelligence collected.