Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered notice to the CBI, on a public interest litigation, which sought a CBI probe into the killing of 13 persons in police firing during the anti-sterlite agitation on May 22 and 23 in Thoothukudi.
A division bench comprising Justices T.Ravindran and P.Velmurugan before whom the PIL filed by advocate A. P. Suryaprakasam came up for hearing also directed the state home secretary to consider the representation of the petitioner dated May 23 and 24, seeking to entrust the investigation to the CBI.
After hearing the petitioner and additional advocate general Narmada Sampath, the bench said the secretary, Home, government of Tamil Nadu was directed to consider the representation given by the petitioner and respond appropriately. At the request of the AAG, post the matter on May 30 for filing counter. Notice to the Director, CBI, the bench added.
According to Suryaprakasam, the police have cold bloodedly shot and murdered 13 civilians on May 22 in Thoothukudi in the name of controlling unarmed citizens agitating to save the earth from pollution. The villagers who fought for clean environment which was their fundamental right have been peacefully protesting for 100 days against Sterlite industries, which has been spoiling the health of the people of Thoothukudi without any regards for human health and safety.
It was shock to see the video clippings of the incident which undoubtedly prove that 2 police men atop a police van taking turns in directly shooting at the peaceful protesters with an intention to kill them with long range rifles and brutally murdered 13 unarmed civilians. There was apprehension in the mind of the people that truth will not come out if the state police was allowed to carry out investigation and an investigation by the CBI alone will bring out the truth.
Moreover, even before the police officials start investigating this incident of killing innocent people by the police, a clean certificate of good conduct and exonerating the police from any wrong doing was given by the Chief Minister, who was in charge of home department. This has strengthened the belief of common man that the investigation by the state police will not be fair and transparent, he added.
Additional advocate general Narmada Sampath submitted that after the ban on internet services, normalcy has been restored. There was also a peace committee meeting held Thursday. So far as the students applying for engineering admission was concerned, there was an extension of time for making online application for another three days.
Under Rule 2 (2) of the Telegraph Act, the government has issued the ban order on Internet Services. A review committee has been constituted where the chief secretary will preside to review the ban order. The representation of the petitioner will be considered by the authorities, she added.
