Madras High Court orders CBI inquiry into firing at anti-Sterlite protests

The CBI shall register cases on the complaints received against officials or police related to the occurrences at Thoothukudi on the day of firing, the court said

The Madras High Court has ordered a time-bound Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the police firing that killed 13 people during the protests against Vedanta Group firm Sterlite Copper's smelter plant in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, on May 22. The CBI has to appoint a special team for an investigation into the matter.

In a common order issued on several petitions filed against the state government, Justice C T Selvam and Justice A M Basheer Ahamed said that the CBI shall register cases on the complaints received against officials or police related to the occurrences at Thoothukudi on the day of firing, including on various questions the Court has raised related to the incident.

"The CBI shall not be restricted to consider only issues which have been highlighted herein above. In other words, it will be duty of the CBI to get to the bottom of things and file such charge sheet/charge sheets, as investigation reveals and necessitates," said the order. The investigation has to be completed within a period of four months of the receipt of the order.

The court has observed that the State needs to answer various questions, including how self-loading rifles found their way out of the armoury and were used in shooting people, and why not a single case was registered by the police.

The Court also quashed detention orders passed against six individuals under the National Security Act. They were detained in connection with the violence during the anti-Sterlite protests in Tuticorin.

The state government had ordered the closure of the copper smelter plant after the violence, prompting the company to move the National Green Tribunal. The NGT has allowed Sterlite to access administrative block. Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court against the order.