Sterlite protests: As Tuticorin weeps for 13 felled in police firing, a quite rage persists

TUTICORIN: On May 21, the eve of the 100th day of the anti-Sterlite protests, condolence posters for S Thangadurai, who died of eye cancer, covered walls in Tuticorin town. The posters registered Thangadurai’s empathy with the Sterlite cause — in a corner, they said: ‘Ban Sterlite’.

The following day, S Maniraj, 25, attended his friend Thangadurai’s funeral and joined a protest march towards the Tutiorin collectorate. A few hours later, his body, with bullet wounds, arrived at the district government hospital. His pregnant wife of three months, Anusya, is inconsolable. An electrical shop owner, Maniraj had joined the protests whenever he got the chance.

But among the victims were also bystanders trapped in the violence by accident.

Antony Selvaraj, 46, who worked with a shipping firm, was in the process of distributing invitations for a family event on May 28. He had gone out on Tuesday morning, promising to come for lunch. On his way home, he was caught in the crossfire.

Vinitha, 33, a homemaker in Therespuram, heard a commotion outside her house and rushed out on Tuesday evening. A little later, her lifeless body with bullet injuries was lying on the street, her husband Xavier said. K Kandaiah, 58, a daily wage worker from Ceylon Colony and a Sri Lankan repatriate, was also killed.

Anger is still palpable as sporadic protests continued in the port town that is swarming with policemen. Many commercial establishments remain shut as an expression of solidarity with the 13 protesters killed when police opened fire to quell the protests and disperse rampaging mobs. Families of the victims refused to take part in the inquest as a mark of protest.

Ranjith Kumar, 22, an engineering graduate and the son of a building contractor, Baskar, helped his father in the family business. A passionate boxer, his coach I Stephen says he won many medals in competitions and had dreams of competing in national and international championships.

Though Ranjith was committed to social causes, his father is still unsure if he had gone to office to work on Tuesday or if a friend persuaded him to participate in protests. His body was among a pile of corpses that wound its way to the hospital morgue in town. The Madras high court on Wednesday directed the district administration to preserve the bodies until further orders.

J Snowlin, 17, had just scored 846/1200 in her Class 12 exams. She wanted to be a teacher or a lawyer. She had been participating in anti-Sterlite protests frequently, raising her voice against the company over the threat that environmental activists say its plants pose to people in the area. Her commitment to the cause began after a relative died of cancer. Snowlin blamed Sterlite Copper’s smelter plant.

Snowlin’s friend Infanta, now recuperating at the government hospital from injuries in the violence, was in tears. “I am yet to come to terms with the fact that it is [Snowlin’s] body lying in the mortuary,” she said.

The 13th victim, Selvasekar, 42, of Sawyerpuram in Tuticorin district, was injured in the riots and died at the hospital on Thursday morning. Some witnesses say a group of policemen attacked him. They said Selvasekar had last spoken to actor and MNM leader Kamal Haasan when he visited the hospital.