The Madras High Court on Monday witnessed heated arguments on a batch of cases related to Thoothukudi police firing which claimed 13 lives on May 22 and 23. While the police urged the court to watch a 20-minute video of protesters against the Sterlite copper smelting plant having used petrol bombs, counsel for some of the public interest litigation petitioners accused the police of attempting to produce a doctored video.
Arguing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice P.T. Asha, Advocate General Vijay Narayan said: “It would be better if Your Lordships can see how the whole thing proceeded because persons who took permission for peaceful agitation, brought petrol bombs along with them.” He said the video, which was part of the case diary, runs for about 20 minutes and the police would want the court to watch it.
Opposing the plea, advocate R. Sankarasubbu, representing a group of three lawyers including S. Jim Raj Milton who had filed a PIL petition seeking an enquiry into the firing incident by Thoothukudi district judge, contended: “That is a doctored one. They want to prejudice the court.” However, the A-G replied that the petitioners were free to send the video to any central laboratory to check its genuineness and then argue their case before the court.
However, advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam, one of the petitioners in the batch of cases, said, there was no need for the court to watch any video since everyone knows about the violence that took place. Since allegations and counter allegations had been levelled against the police as well as the protesters, it would be better to order for a Central Bureau of Investigation, he said. “Whoever is the culprit, let them be punished,” the lawyer added.
Concurring with him, the Chief Justice said, she had ordered a CBI enquiry into the gutkha scam solely on the ground of reposing public confidence on the probe and without casting any insinuations on the probe conducted by the State police. “On same parity of reasoning, we feel that this case could also go to the CBI for a fair investigation. Everyone who broke the law has to be punished. One cannot get away after throwing a petrol bomb,” she said.
The A-G contended that there was no necessity for a CBI probe since the investigation by the State police was proceeding in the right direction. He dismissed allegations of snipers having been used to kill the protesters and said the State police do not have any snipers at all. The weapon used by one of the policemen, who was widely covered in the media, was a Self Loading Rifle (SLR) and he used it to shoot only one shot on air, the A-G said.
After hearing him, the judges adjourned the matter by three weeks after directing the families of the 13 victims to approach the judicial magistrates concerned if they were yet to receive the post mortem reports.