On May 24, 2018, M.K. Stalin, who was the Leader of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu, had demanded answers from the AIADMK government for the “Tuticorin massacre”. He had sought the resignations of the Chief Minister and Director General of Police (DGP). “The TN Govt has been unable to give answers to #TuticorinMassacre. We will ensure the protestors’ and peoples’ voices from Tuticorin are heard in Chennai. Our fight against this #IncompetentEPS Govt will NOT stop till the resignations of the CM and DGP. #SterliteProtest,” he had tweeted. Two days earlier, during the protests against Vedanta’s Sterlite copper smelter plant in Thoothukudi, 13 people, including Snowlin, 18, were killed in police firing.
Mr. Stalin had demanded registration of a murder case against those involved in the police firing, the withdrawal of the cases filed against the protesters, and the release of the arrested agitators. He had even accused the AIADMK-led government of using “impersonators for firing on and murdering the protesters.”
More than five years later, as Chief Minister, Mr. Stalin is facing uncomfortable questions on his stand then and now. What has put the issue back in the spotlight is the government’s decision to promote Additional Director General of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav to the rank of DGP. Mr. Yadav, who was Inspector General (IG) of Police (South) at the time of the police firing, featured on top of the list of 17 police officers who were held “jointly and severally accountable” for the killings in a report submitted in 2022 to the Chief Minister by the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission of Inquiry. The Commission recommended that “action be taken against the aforesaid police officers for their acts of commission and omission departmentally without prejudice to launching criminal action” Justice Jagadeesan said, “The IG also has his own share of blame, for he had failed to evolve fitting strategies on receipt of intelligence inputs strongly suggesting there was a great likelihood of breach of peace.”
