The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay a Madras High Court order for a CBI inquiry into the police firing on protesters demanding the closure of the Sterlite Copper plant — a unit of the Vedanta Group — over pollution concerns.
The firing took place on the 100th day of the protests in Thoothukudi in May. Thirteen people died that day. A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, issued notice to the CBI on the petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government against the High Court order.
‘See the other side’
“We have to see the other side,” the Chief Justice said in response to Tamil Nadu counsel and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, when he sought a stay.
The High Court had ordered that FIRs be registered against top police officials and officials of the civic administration.
The CBI has registered a case against the Police and Revenue Department officials and others on charges of “robbery, dacoity, falsification of evidence and disobeying law” in connection with the anti-Sterlite protests and the subsequent firing. The CBI’s Special Crime Branch has booked “unknown persons” and public servants under Sections 166 (public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 392 (robbery), 395 (dacoity), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
