Inquiry into police firing on anti-Sterlite protesters delayed due to COVID-19, T.N. govt tells Madras HC

Says ₹1 lakh each was paid to 86 arrestees and that whereabouts of nine more are not known

The Tamil Nadu government has told the Madras High Court that the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry (CoI), probing the police firing that led to the death of 13 anti-Sterlite protesters in Thoothukudi in May 2018, could not complete its probe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a counter affidavit filed before Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, the government stated that the inquiry had to be stalled for different periods between April 2020 and June 2021 due to the threat posed by first and second waves of COVID-19. “The CoI is presently examining the police personnel from July 2021,” the affidavit read. The counter was filed in response to a public interest litigation petition filed by Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director of People’s Watch, a human rights organisation based in Madurai.