Thoothukudi: As the opposition parties were demanding the government to disclose, who issued the order for police firing that claimed 12 lives on May 22 and one the following day in Thoothukudi against the anti-Sterlite protesters, two deputy tahsildars and a zonal officer prohibition) were found to have issued the orders for the firing.
Cases have been registered in this regard by Thoothukudi SIPCOT police and Thoothukudi North police and investigation is on, according to police sources.
According to the first information report (FIR) filed in this regard at SIPCOT police station, based on the complaint of P Sekar, deputy tahsildar (election), it has been stated that since the anti-Sterlite activists, along with the 'Naam Thamilar Katchi', 'Makkal Adhikaram' and 'Puratchihara Ilaignar Munnani' led around 10,000 people from the nearby villages of Kumareddyapuram, Pandarampatti, Meelavittan, Therkku Veerapandiyapuram, Madathur, Mathakoil region, Therespuram, Fathima Nagar and Lion's Town to lay siege the district collector's office on May 22 morning, despite prohibitory order was clamped under section 144 of Cr.P.C. since the previous day night.
Moreover, the deputy tahsildar, Sekar in his complaint too has stated that the mob went unruly and uncontrollable and set ablaze the vehicles and damaged public building on their way to the Collectorate.
“The mob too pelted stones and attacked the police, who objected to them going further to siege the collector's office,” said the complainant. As thousands in the enraged mob entered the collectorate premises with lethal weapons like sickle, sticks and petrol bombs, he as an officer specially deputed to maintaining law and order in the collectorate campus, warned the mob using public announcement system, said the officer.
As the mob did not heed the warning announcement, the police used tear gas shelling and rubber batons and shot warning shots in air to disburse the mob. However, as all these warning of the police went futile, the deputy tahsildar, Sekar was said to have ordered open firing in which 11 got killed in SIPCOT police limit near the district Collectorate.
In a similar complaint against the mob at Therespuram, where a 40-year-old lady Jancy, wife of Jesubalan, was killed in another police shoot out on May 22 evening, Thoothukudi North police have registered case under 15 sections that include 11 sections of IPC, section 3(1) and 4 of Tamilnadu Public Property (prevention of damage and loss) Act 1982, section 3 of Explosives substance Act 1908, and section 174 of criminal procedure code. The complainant of this case in the North police station, M Kannan, Thoothukudi zonal deputy tahsildar has stated in his complaint that he had ordered to open firing as the mob failed to heed the warnings given as per police manual and started attacking police with leathal weapons and petrol bombs in their attempt to attack the police quarters at North beach road.
The police too registered yet another case on May 23, in which an youth, Kaliappan (22) was shot dead when the police used rubber bullets against a mob that indulged in stone pelting and firing government and private vehicles at Annanagar in the city. This case was registered based on the complaint of Thoothukudi Zonal Tahsildar (prohibition), Chandra, who is specially deputed by the collector to maintain law and order in Annanagar.
Responding to the information that the firing was ordered by tahsildar-level officers, Human rights activist, A Marx, said that though any officer specially deputed by the district collector could legally order firing in times if emergency, the explanation was not acceptable in the Thoothukudi issue, where the firing was done on innocent people.
