The Madras High Court today directed the Tuticorin police to treat as one all 173 FIRs registered in connection with the violence during the anti-Sterlite protest in May in that district.

A division bench of justices C T Selvam and A M Basheer Ahamed gave the direction on a PIL by John Vincent and Pon Pandian.

The petitioner sought a probe into the matter on the basis of one FIR and treat the agitation on May 22 and 23 and the subsequent police firing, which left 13 people dead, as a single incident.

Partly allowing the plea, the bench said the decision on the manner of investigation in the case was pending before the principal seat of the high court and added the petitioner could move there.

The advocate, representing the government submitted that this was not possible as the case cannot be treated as a single incident because the anti-Sterlite groups vandalised a lot of government and private properties, 'incited' riots on the way to the Turicorin District Collectorate and 'attacked' the officials there.

Noting that the FIRs had been filed against individuals, the bench sought to know if the message conveyed to the protesters was that if they get bail in one case, they could be arrested in another.

"How brazen and insensitive can the State be? Is it oblivious or uncaring or did it do it with intent... by filing multiple FIRs on one occurrence," the judges asked.

The manner in which the FIRs had been filed showed that everyone, even if he or she had played a small part during the protest, he or she would fear to hear a knock on the door at the stroke of midnight and face an arrest by the police, the judges observed.

"The government should actually balm and heal their wounds, instead the police were threatening them," they said.

The petitioners submitted that police were barred under the law to investigate into the case separately for the same occurrence for which the probe had already been transferred to the CB-CID.

The police were acting with mala fide intention by filing numerous FIRs, arresting many people and implicating them in cases to stifle their voice," they claimed.

Hence, the court should restrain the police from conducting independent investigation or effecting arrests on the basis of numerous FIRs and render all of them as null and void and quash them, they said.

The anti-Sterlite agitation in Tuticorin went on peacefully for 99 days and turned violent on the 100th day leading to the police firing that left 13 people dead.