CBI Did Not Probe Thoothukudi Firing Incident Independently: Madras High Court

The bench of Justice SS Sundar and Justice N Senthilkumar said that the agency had failed miserably and the fact that the agency had named only one inspector in its charge sheet would only lead to the conclusion that the agency was not acting independently.

The court added that there were serious lapses in the investigation conducted by the agency as it had not considered important events and had even failed to consider the findings of the Aruna Jagadeesan committee report. The court said that the investigating agency's report was unreliable and unrealistic.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Executive Director of People's Watch, Henri Tiphagne, seeking directions to the NHRC to reopen the case of killing unarmed protestors. Tiphagne had challenged the NHRC's closure of the suo moto investigation into the matter.

In the previous hearing, the court had directed the Tamil Nadu Department of Vigilance and Anti Corruption to investigate the assets of all police and government officers named as accused in connection with the 2018 Thoothukudi Police Firing.

The DVAC sought more time to complete the investigation. The court thus granted 3 months time to the DVAC to hold a fair investigation. The court also directed the DGP and the concerned departmental secretaries to extend cooperation to the DVAC.

During the course of the hearing, the court highlighted that its intention was to prevent such an incident in the future. The court said that it was "unable to digest" the fact that the police had targeted and chased unarmed protestors all for one individual who was running a system which was bad for the people and the society. The court added that the authorities had taken the death of 13 persons in the firing very casually, which was painful.

Case Title: Henri Tiphagne v The National Human Rights Commission and Others

Case No: WP(MD) 10526 of 2021

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