Police Firing: Kill, Throw Money And Close The Case
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-06-28 01:31:55
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The anger of Madras HC at the Tamil Nadu government for not booking anyone for the killing of 13 unarmed protestors at the Sterlite site in Tuticorin in police firing is justified. It has been three years since the incident and the prosecution has not been able to charge even a single person for the lapse that caused so many deaths. Instead, the government made ex-gratia payment to the kin of the deceased and forgot the matter. This puts a price on the life of people and gives the police a licence to kill in the name of controlling crowds.
The court was livid and asked that "can we kill people and throw money at them and say that our job is done? Is that the society we want to build? Just throwing money at some people and everything is hushed up?" It also said that "it is somewhat alarming that the state, through its police, fired at unarmed protestors and no one is booked three years after the incident". The incident is commonly known as the Thoothukudi massacre and four of the protestors shot dead were prominent anti-Sterlite protestors.
It is good that the court has raised this issue. It has become a standard feature of any such incident that the government closes the case after the politicians express regret, announce ex-gratia payments and form a SIT in some cases. The SIT report is submitted months later and no action is ever taken on it. The policemen guilty of killing innocent protestors get away without any punishment and other policemen in that state, as also other states of India, are 'encouraged' to repeat the act with impunity.
The Supreme Court needs to issue guidelines about the handling of such incidents. Immediately after the incident, all policemen who fire must be identified and isolated. They must be interrogated by an independent agency and the reason why they fired to kill and who issued the order must be established to find out whether due process was followed. If not, the guilty must be punished as per law to stop such incidents from taking place. A time limit must be specified for the completion of the entire fact-finding process.
Picture courtesy: newindianexpress.com
