What Tamil Nadu Home Ministry Said On RTI Over Status of Thoothukudi Sterlite Firing Case (image:x.com/immancomposer)

The Home and Revenue Department of Tamil Nadu is yet to take action on the Thoothukudi Sterlite Firing case. In response to a Right To Information (RTI) request filed by Timeline, the Public (Law and Order) Department has updated the current status. The families of the victims are still waiting for justice, which then Opposition leader MK Stalin, and current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had promised then.

The RTI raised the following queries: What is the status of Thoothukudi Sterlite Firing case? Has the inquiry been finished? Or in the process of finishing it? Are there any arrests made? Please update the current status of the inquiry.

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In response to the RTI request, the government responded that it has constituted a commission of inquiry under the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan and submitted its final report.

“The recommendation of the Inquiry Commission report has been forwarded to Home and Revenue Departments for necessary action. Regarding the information of any arrests made and current status, it is stated that action has to be made in Home and Revenue Department. There are no details in this Public Authority regarding arrests made,” the response said.

The RTI Response Received.

In 2018, residents of Thoothukudi convened in protest demanding the shutting down of Sterlite Copper, alleging that the Sterlite Copper plant contaminated the region’s air and water resources. Sterlite Copper is a copper smelting unit and is a subsidiary of the London-based Vedanta Group.

The peaceful protest that continued on for about 100 days ended in unanticipated violence, which aggravated to open firing by the police, resulting in the death of 14 civilians, including 17-year-old Snowlin Jackson. The police continued to fire on the protestors for two successive days on May 22 and 23, 2018, and have injured more than 100 people. A week after that, Sterlite Copper was closed.

Earlier, the police and other officials had stated that the shooting was an act of self defence. But former Madras High Court judge Aruna Jagadeesan Commission’s report held 17 police personnel, former Thoothukudi District Collector N Venkatesh, and three Deputy Tahsildars responsible for the firing case. The report stated that police response by firing on protestors was largely unprovoked and indiscriminate. Subsequently, the state government has accepted all the findings and recommendations in the inquiry report and submitted it to the State Assembly on October 18, 2022.

While tabling the Commission’s report, MK Stalin referred to the Sterlite firing incident as a “big black mark” on the state’s history and pledged that those responsible would be made accountable. In addition, the Chief Minister added that departmental action had been initiated against the Collector and senior police officers. The inspector and three policemen mentioned in the report have already been suspended, and disciplinary actions have been taken against former officers, including Inspector General (South) Shailesh Kumar Yadav, Deputy Inspector General of Tirunelveli C Kapil Kumar, and Superintendent of Police of Thoothukudi P Mahendran, he added.

However, in December 2023, the Stalin government’s decision to promote Shailesh Kumar Yadav from the Additional Director General of Police to the rank of DGP has not only brought the DMK under sharp attacks of the activists but also of DMK’s allies, such as the CPI and CPI(M), who were at the forefront of the protest. In January this year, the High Court questioned this promotion where the government said in a clarification that it had taken departmental action against 17 police officers, including Yadav. But no much details were provided on the nature of “disciplinary actions,” the News Minute in a report stated.

While campaigning in Thoothukudi at the onset of 2021 assembly elections,  Stalin said in his evocative speech; “A horrible firing happened. What is its backdrop? BJP and AIADMK joined and committed brutal murders. Seventeen-year-old Snowlin was shot and killed… what all atrocities happened. For this, have they been punished? Not yet,”  the News Minute reported as Stalin is saying. If voted to power, he has also promised to held that the police officers those charged police officers will be made accountable. Aruna Jagadeesan report has also suggested criminal proceedings against the officers along with the departmental action, but not much progress has been made in the former.

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Three years have since his passionate speech, where DMK government came to power in the Assembly polls and recent Lok Sabha polls as well. In February, the Supreme Court dismissed Vedanta’s special leave petition demanding to reopen Thoothukudi Sterlite copper plant, ascertaining Madras High Court’s judgment from August 2020, which confirmed the state government and Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s (TNPCB)’s decision to permanently shut down the plant due to environmental violations. The closure of the plant was as a point of discussion remained relevant in the current polls as well.

Meanwhile, in August, the Apex Court stayed the Madras High Court’s order, which directed a fresh investigation by the Stare Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) into the assets of the police and government officials accused in the firing case.