Sterlite protests continues; death toll rises to 13; Stalin detained

The protests against the Sterlite Company has increasingly become violent with the police firing at the protestors, raising the death toll.

As of now the tally is 13.

A 42-year-old anti-Sterlite protestor had succumbed to his injuries today at Tuticorin government hospital.

As the situation continued to be tense, polices security has been upped. Nearly 200 policemen, including top IPS officers, are on duty.

Sources said postmortem examination had been performed on two of the 13 bodies, as only three families of the deceased persons were present for the inquest, as rules mandate.

The families of ten other victims have not arrived at the hospital, some of them angry with the system and the others keeping away due to local pressure. On Wednesday, the Madras high court had ordered that 11 bodies be preserved until further orders.

READ ALSO: Sterlite Company cuts down nearly 33,000 employees; no electricity in plant

VIRAL VIDEO

From the protest site, a local reporter’s video has gone viral. In the video, a policeman is prodding at a young man’s dead body, asking him to “Stop acting, go away!”

Watch VIDEO here:

#Police says to an Fired and Injured man “Don’t Act” #Sterliteprotest #Bansterlite #Thoothukudi ? pic.twitter.com/vwy7mVwc6T

— Vikram VFC (@Vijayfans007) May 23, 2018

A dozen people have been killed in police firing on protesters over the last two days. Ten people were killed on Tuesday and yesterday, two more, including Kaliappan, died in firing by policemen.

The police chief and the district collector of Tuticorin were transferred yesterday.

Meanwhile, former Tirunelveli District Collector, Sandeep Nanduri took charge as new Tuticorin District Collector.

One video released by a leading news agency showed a policeman taking position on the top of a bus and preparing to shoot. In the background, a voice is heard — “At least one should die”. Seconds later he fires the first shot. The opposition DMK compared the firing to the 1919 Jalianwalla Bagh massacre when the British opened fire on a peaceful gathering.

Meanwhile, DMK leader MK Stalin, who were staging a protest outside Assembly, was detained by the Tamil Nadu police today. Slamming the police action, Stalin has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister K Palaniswami and state police chief T K Rajendran.

Stalin, along with Neta Kamal Hassan of the Makkal Needhi Maiam party, and Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy aka Vaiko of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) party has been charged with a case for visiting the Tuticorin victims while the 144 order was in place.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami stated that this visit was more of a ‘political tourism’ and that opposition is only interested in political drama.