Thoothukudi Firing: One year on, police continue to suppress protests, say activists

Though there has been discontent against the copper plant for long, the protest against Sterlite broke out after the company announced its plans to expand. Residents of Kumarettiyapuram village adjacent to the copper smelter were in the forefront of the protest, holding peaceful protests for 99 days. They received support from various villages, with thousands joining them.

On the 100th day, the protesters had planned to organise events in a big manner, with a rally to the collectorate from the Our Lady of Snows Shrine Basilica. However, the district police stopped the protesters right at the church. Some of them managed to break the shackles and proceeded to the collectorate, where violence broke out and vehicles and public properties were torched. The residential quarters of Sterlite employees, situated next to collectorate, was also targeted.

In the chaos that followed, police opened fire on protesters, killing 11 inside the collectorate premises and 2 outside it. Three more died due to alleged police brutalities.

The State government appointed a Judicial Committee headed by retired High Court judge Justice Aruna Jagadeesan a day after the incident. The police investigation was shifted from CB-CID to the CBI.

Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director, People’s Watch, an NGO based at Madurai, alleged that both CBI and Aruna Jagadeesan Committee were lethargic in their investigation into their incident. His organisation had released an extensive report, “A Year After Thoothukudi Burned”, which had raised questions about the work by both the commission and the investigation agency.

“The Aruna Jagadeeshan Committee was given just three months’ time to complete the investigation but so far in the last one year, the committee had examined only 329 persons. In addition, 640 persons, including 200 Sterlite employees, had given their statements but they are yet to be examined,” Henri Tiphagne told DT Next.

According to him, many of the recommendations of the committee were not followed by the district administration. For instance, after Justin Selvamitish, who was beaten by police with an iron rod, succumbed to his injuries, the committee had recommended Rs 20 lakh and a government job for his kin. But the district administration has not implemented the recommendations so far.

Also, he added, though there were explicit directions from the court that the investigation should be completed within four months, the CBI has not made any substantial progress in nine months. “In the FIR registered by CBI, the names of the policemen who were responsible for the killings were not even mentioned,” Tiphagne said, adding that the people have lost their confidence in the agency.

Meanwhile, Thoothukudi is remembering the first anniversary of the police firing on Wednesday. The police had initially refused to give permission for the commemoration event, but relented to give a limited time to the protesters to conduct the event after judicial intervention.

When the organisers were preparing for the event, police served notice under Section 107 of IPC. Professor Fatima Babu, one of the coordinators of the protest who too was served the notice, said, “Even after one year the people of Thoothukudi have no freedom to protest against Sterlite, as police are involved in supressing the commemorative event. But we will fight and will not allow Sterlite in Thoothukudi anymore.”