Sterlite Copper employees and police officers questioned
The 30th sitting of Justice Aruna Jegadeesan Commission probing police firing during anti-Sterlite protest on May 22, 2018, in which 13 persons were killed, has questioned 100 witnesses, including employees of Sterlite Copper living in the company’s quarters near the Collectorate when it came under attack by rioters.
The Commission also inquired during the sitting the policemen and officers who were on bandobust duty in Collectorate area on the fateful day.
Commission’s advocate Arul Vadivel Sekar said 51 employees of Sterlite Copper, including its vice-president, assistant vice-president, senior managers and safety officers, who were residing in the company’s ‘Tamira 2’ Quarters, were grilled during the 30th sitting. Besides ransacking several houses there, a mob also set on fire several cars and bikes parked inside the quarters before the police opened fire to control them.
Since Sterlite Copper remained sealed after the police firing, the senior officials who had been transferred to Vedanta’s other units in Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh came back to Thoothukudi for tendering witness.
Two Deputy Superintendents of Police, six Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors and policemen, who had been deployed in and around the Collectorate, were also quizzed during this sitting that started on September 13.
The Commission has so far recorded the statements of 962 people after summoning 1,330 people and marked 1,237 documents as evidence.
During the next sitting in mid-October, the Commission is expected to record the evidences of doctors who conducted post-mortem of the gunned down persons and ballistic and forensic experts.
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