Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state government to handover the video footage of police firing against anti-Sterlite protesters in May 22-23 at Thoothukudi to the court.
When a batch of petitions seeking court monitored probe in the shooting the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice P.T Asha asked the government why cannot the state give away the investigation into the police shooting to the CBI since allegations against the state police.
The bench has also directed that those who have not been furnished with the post-mortem copies may file an application before the concerned magistrate, who will in turn identify the next kin of the deceased and handover the copy of the postmortem report.
The CJ has observed that “I do not understand why Tamil Nadu government is opposing a CBI probe into the police shooting. We suggest it only to instill confidence of people. But we are not saying that the probe by state police is biased or shabby.” She said, “Even in the gutka scam order we did not order CBI probe based on the allegations of involvement of a minister and DGP, we did so only to instill confidence of the people about the fairness of the probe. We also recorded the same in the order. Similarly, in the present case, when the state police are also involved, a probe by an independent agency would get people’s confidence.”
Responding to allegation of counsels for the petitioner stating that it was one-sided attack, the Chief Justice said, “I seldom watch television. On that day, I was in Kodaikanal and I watched the incident on a TV channel. From what was shown, I am sure it was not one-sided but two-sided attack. A section of protesters could be seen attacking police vehicles and setting them on fire. Vehicles were overturned and set on fire.” The advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that the government has video proof that some of the protesters carried petrol bombs during the ‘peaceful’ rally. The CJ replied that if such allegations are true such persons cannot be allowed to get away. Moreover, it would be wrong to say that police cannot act in self-defence. Later the bench posted the matter to July 30, 2018 for further hearing.
