Nine dead as protest against Sterlite turns violent in Tamil Nadu

Ever since the project went on stream, the company has been facing problems as agitators claim that the factory is causing harm to its employees

Nine people were killed and many injured after police opened fire on protesters demanding the closure of Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper unit at Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, over pollution concerns and other issues. 

While the Tamil Nadu government has appointed a one-man commission of a retired judge to probe the incident, opposition parties have hit out at the police action.

The agitation has been continuing for the last 100 days against Sterlite Copper, which represents the copper unit of Vedanta Limited. The recent protests gathered steam after Sterlite announced plans to invest Rs 25 billion in doubling the capacity of its existing facility to