New Delhi: The Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry – constituted to probe into the 2018 police firing on civilians who took part in anti-Sterlite protests in Tamil Nadu’s port town of Thoothukudi – said “excessive lethal force” by police on the protesters was “unprovoked”, Frontline has reported.
According to the commission, during the protests which claimed 13 lives and left several injured, there was a “lack of coordination” among senior police officials and the district collector resulting in violence and loss of lives when civilians took out a rally to mark their 100 days of protests.
“[T]here is no material on record to show that it was only to deal with a militant crowd of protesters that the opening of fire was resorted to,” Justice Jagadeesan, head of the panel and a former judge of Madras high court, said while dismissing the then All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government’s claims that the police had to open fire to quell mob violence.
The commission recommended that the state government initiate action against the police officials for “their acts of commission and omission departmentally without prejudice to launching criminal action”, for they “have certainly exceeded the limit”.
Violence erupted in the last week of May 2018 in Thoothukudi on the 100th day of a peaceful civil protest by locals against Sterlite Corporation’s smelter plant in their town. Several hundreds of protesters were arrested and faced harassment at the hands of police. Internet was also suspended in the district from May 23-28, 2018, for the very first time in Tamil Nadu in wake of a law-and-order situation. The opposition to the plant was due to ecological damage the plant would result in, according to the protesters.
Also read: ‘In Thoothukudi, the Choice Before People Was to Die of Cancer or Bullets’
The Inquiry Commission’s report, which was submitted to chief minister M.K. Stalin on May 18, 2022, will have to be placed before the State Assembly within six months as mandated by Section 3(4) of The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly election, Stalin’s party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), assured stern action against those responsible for the lives lost and the violence if voted to power. The Stalin government shut down the plant on May 28 this year, citing flouting of norms on the part of the plant, through an order issued by the forests and environment department.
The mystery of the police firing deepened with the emergence of a picture showing a sniper shooting from atop a vehicle at the crowd. Credit: Twitter
The damning report by the Commission held several top police officials responsible for the violence, including the then Inspector General of Police (South Zone) Shailesh Kumar Yadav (now ADGP, Police Welfare); Deputy Inspector General of Police (Tirunelveli Range) Kapil Kumar C. Saratkar (now an Additional Commissioner of Police, Chennai city); Superintendent of Police (Thoothukudi) P. Mahendran (now Deputy Commissioner (Admn), Chennai); and Deputy SP (Thoothukudi) Lingathirumaran, and three Inspectors, two Sub-Inspectors, one head constable and seven constables.
The Commission’s report, which runs into 3,000 pages and spread over five volumes, charged police with opening fire at “fleeing protesters”.
“Here is a case of police indulging in shooting from their hide-outs at the protesters who were far away from them,” the report said, adding that the protesters were unaware of where and which direction the bullets were coming from, resulting in “total chaos, destruction, and death”.
The Commission specifically named then district collector N. Venkatesh – currently serving at the National Fisheries Development Board in Hyderabad – for his “abdication of responsibility, gross negligence and ill-conceived decisions”.
Recommending action against Venkatesh, the probe panel said he, instead of staying in the district headquarters in Thoothukudi, was in Kovilpatti, nearly 100 kms away, on May 22 when the town was “under siege”.
Based on the analysis of the ballistics report, the commission concluded that “the shooting was from long range [weapons], and not short range”. Subsequent post-mortem reports and case studies of injured persons confirmed the same.
According to the panel report, the police posted there did not follow the Police Standing Orders, or “Dos and Don’ts” mandated for such situations. “There were no deterrent acts, such as warnings, use of teargas or water cannons, lathi-charge, or warning shots in the air, as mandated by the PSO,” the commission averred, adding that there was no “imminent threat to the life and limb of the policemen”.
The panel also goes on to say that the security forces did not aim below the waist and knees, as was required, to deter protesters, but took “random shots” at the people gathered at various spots in the town.
The Commission specifically named one Sudalaikannu, a police constable, as an “ace-shooter” to cite an example of the “police’s extrajudicial adventures”.