A 23-member team of retired judges, senior bureaucrats, police officers and social activists have called for a full administrative and criminal investigation into the Thoothukudi police firing and violence, which left 14 people dead.
Their report pointed to evidence that revealed a violation of Standard Operating Procedures, a total breakdown of civilian authority and possible mala fide intent and murder.
Releasing the report, former Madras High Court judge D. Hariparanthaman, who was part of the People’s Inquest that probed the police firing, appealed for an immediate end to the intimidation and arbitrary arrest of people under open FIRs filed against unnamed people in the town. He said normalcy must be restored, and called for all deaths to be treated as murders.
The former judge appreciated the efforts of lower level judicial officers and the Thoothukudi Bar Association in helping the protesters. Former IAS officer Christodas Gandhi said the civil administration had deliberately absented itself on that day and ceded all its authority and power to the police, which was headless. Lawyer Prashant Bhushan called the brutal repression unleashed by the police on the protesters unprecedented.
Journalist Kavitha Muralidharan said protesters were being branded anti-socials. The report highlighted the presence of sharpshooters and snipers, targeted killing of known anti-Sterlite protesters like Jancy of Theresepuram and the failure of the administration and the police to resolve the matter despite the long notice of 100 days given by protesters.
Former Chief Justice A.P. Shah, who was to release the report and deliver a speech on ‘Democracy and Dissent’, was taken ill and could not travel. He, however, conveyed his solidarity and urged the State administration to ensure an immediate end to the harassment of Thoothukudi residents by the police and the district administration, a release said.