THEY were “shot like sparrows”. This claim of relatives and friends of victims of the police firing on anti-Sterlite protesters at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu on May 22/23, 2018, is not far from the truth.
Post-mortem reports of a few of those who were killed in the police firing confirm what Frontline stated in the article “Gunning down a protest” (June 22, 2018): the police shot unarmed civilian protesters “in the head, the chest and the torso”.
Apparently, the law enforcers had no intention of using minimum force and causing as little injury to person and property as possible to disperse the crowd. This was in violation of all norms and provisions of the Police Standing Orders (“Violation of police standing orders”, June 22, 2018).
The people of Thoothukudi have been fighting against the industry since 1996 in phases. The rally on May 22, 2018, was meant to mark the 100th day of their protest. It ended in the death of 13 people and grievous injuries to scores of others in police action. Bowing to pressure from activists and Thoothukudi residents, the Tamil Nadu government closed Sterlite Industries’ copper smelter. The Supreme Court recently upheld the government’s action and also ordered a judicial commission of inquiry headed by Justice Aruna Jegadeesan, retired High Court judge, into the incidents. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the violence will go on simultaneously.
The post-mortem examinations were performed in three phases on May 24, May 25 and June 6, 2018, mainly because of multiple court interventions, legal issues and the volatile situation that prevailed in the town then. On instructions from the Dean, Government Medical College, Thoothukudi, and the District Collector, Thoothukudi, a panel of forensic experts conducted the post-mortems at the dead body preservation area of the Government Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital instead of the autopsy block to “avoid law and order problems”.
Many of the victims were shot and killed in the vicinity of the office of the District Collector, the nearby Food Corporation of India (FCI) godown and the adjoining Sterlite employees’ quarters. These areas and the industrial unit also fall under the territorial jurisdiction of the Thoothukudi SIPCOT police station. It was in these areas that the police employed plainclothesmen who used self-loading rifles (SLRs) from atop three white police vans against protesters assembled at the collectorate complex to submit a petition against Sterlite to the then Collector, N. Venkatesh.
Strangely enough, the Collector, after promulgating prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (disallowing unlawful assembly) on May 21, left the headquarters for Kovilpatti town, some 100 kilometres away.
A study of the post-mortem reports, copies of which are with Frontline , revealed disturbing information about the shots that were fired to kill protesters.
In the case of Snowlyn, 18, the bullet pierced the back of her neck and exited through the mouth. R. Tamilarasan alias Marichamy, 45, one of the organisers of the protest, was killed instantly when a bullet hit the back of his head and exited through his forehead.
A bullet smashed the skull of B. Ranjith Kumar, 22, shattering his brain. A bullet hit Kandaiah, 55, in the back and exited through his chest.
S. Manirajan, 29, was shot in the head, while the brain of Jhansi, a 42-year-old housewife, was found splattered on the road and the wall of a building nearby. It apparently took almost 36 hours to establish her identity.
N. Jayaraman, 42, was shot in the face, while P. Selvasekar suffered a ruptured heart and multiple wounds; the post-mortem report indicated that the latter had also been stomped upon.
“The wounds of many could have been caused from close-range gunshots or from powerful weapons,” a forensic expert said. According to the post-mortem reports, the wounds were “lacerated and punctured”, suggesting that rifles and pistols had been used. The entrance and exit profiles and the path the projectiles traversed in the body have also been noted in detail. The reports, however, did not identify the types of weapons used.
Post-mortem details
Snowlyn was found to have a “circular punctured wound (entry wound) in the back of her neck, measuring 4 mm in diameter” that fractured the third vertebra. Her spinal cord was found lacerated. The bullet passed through the parapharyngeal space in the neck and the head and pierced the thyroid membrane. The bullet exited through her oral cavity.
In the opinion of the forensic team that performed the post-mortem, the deceased appeared “to have died of cardio-pulmonary arrest (spinal injury) due to firearm bullet injury to the back of neck”. The team said that the death would have occurred “within four to five hours from her last meal”.
Jhansi, who lived in Madhava Nayar Colony in Thireshpuram with her husband, Seshu Balan, a daily-wage worker, was going to a neighbour’s house when a bullet struck her, possibly from close range. According to the post-mortem report, the “entire brain tissue was found to be missing”. Besides, it said, there were multiple displaced fractures of the right temporal bone and the left frontal, parietal-temporal-occipital (which is located in the cerebral cortex of the brain) and facial bones. The “base of the skull [was] found to be fractured, involving arterial and middle cranial fossa [a depression where the brain is located]”.
In her case, the findings point out that the bullet entered through her right ear (2.5 cm x 2 cm x brain deep), and burst open the cranial cavity base of the skull before exiting from the left side of her head. The impact left the facial bone on the left side fractured into “multiple pieces”. An X-ray of the skull showed a fracture in the right temporal bone and shattered left frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital and facial bones. Her entire face and head, as per the report, was mangled. The opinion of the forensic team was that the deceased “would appear to have died of shock and haemorrhage due to firearm bullet injury to the head”.
Similar findings could be noted in the other post-mortem reports too. Ranjith Kumar was killed after a “penetrating injury to the brain due to the firearm bullet injury to the back of [his] head”.
Tamilarasan had “died of shock and haemorrhage due to perforated wound [firearm bullet injury] to the head”.
Kandaiah, the oldest among those killed, died of “shock and haemorrhage due to lacerated punctured wound to the region of the left side of chest”. The report said that its findings were “consistent with firearm bullet injury”.
Selvasekar “appeared to have died of shock and haemorrhage due to blunt injuries to the region of left side of chest”. The post-mortem report said his injuries included a sutured wound over the top of his head, a wound in the right lower limb and a deep incised puncture wound on the left side of the chest. The left lung was found to have collapsed. The first left rib was found broken. He was admitted to hospital for multiple injuries and later died, an indication that he may have been stomped to death. The post-mortem report of Kilaston, 40, said that the “deceased would appear to have died of shock and haemorrhage due to lacerated punctured wound to the region of left side of chest”. Its findings “are consistent with firearm bullet injury”. Grazed lacerations of sizes 6 x 3 cm and 3 x 1 cm were seen on the dorsum (the posterior part of a body from the neck to the end of the spine). “Proximal and distal phalanges [any of the small distal bones in the third row of phalanges of the hand or the foot] were found fractured and exposed.”
The injuries included a circular lacerated and punctured wound (bullet entry) of 1 cm diameter that was seen over the front of the left side chest; the bullet had exited through the left side of the back of the chest. The track of the wound from anterior chest wall to the posterior chest wall through the pericardium, the left ventricle and the inter-ventricular septum, was in a straight 17-cm-long track marked with blood clots. The left lung was found collapsed.
The entry point of the bullet in Kandaiah’s body was noticed in the back of his chest. It was located 2 cm left of the posterior midline and left of the nape of the neck. The exit wound of 2 x 1.5 cm size was seen in the middle of the left side of the chest, indicating that he could have been shot from behind. The upper lobe of the left lung was found collapsed.
In the case of Ranjith Kumar, a circular perforated wound of 4 mm diameter was noted in the left occipital region, suggesting the entry of the bullet into the skull. The exit of the bullet could be noticed as an irregular lacerated perforated wound of 2 cm x 1 cm size that damaged the brain.
In the case of Tamilarasan, the size of the bullet entry wound was 2 x 1.5 cm, brain deep and above the left mastoid region and behind the left pinna. The exit wound was 3 x 2 cm in size, lacerated and perforated, brain deep and seen over the right side of the forehead and 1 cm above the right eyebrow. The skull X-ray showed multiple fractures in the left fronto-parietal bone and the right temporal bone. The base of the skull was found fractured.
The reports, however, could not ascertain the post-mortem interval—the period between the time of death and the finding of the body—as the bodies were kept in cold storage from May 22. In the case of gunshot wounds, if the post-mortem intervalhappens to be long, it is difficult to determine with certainty the time of death. “Only eyewitnesses and observations of individuals, pieced together, could provide the time of death,” an expert said. Besides, the time interval could not be ascertained with zero error as bodies undergo decomposition faster in warm weather such as that in Thoothukudi, he added.
The reports, each running into two pages, have carried out a detailed assessment of firearm injuries without missing any basic details despite the decomposition of the bodies. The reports included vital aspects of the spots of entrance and exit wounds, the course of the bullets, detection of projectile fragments and the nature of injuries caused to internal organs. “It is tough to adhere to the standard autopsy exercises on decomposing bodies,” the expert said.
The post-mortem examinations were done by a team of forensic experts drawn from government hospitals. For further forensic studies, the team has preserved the viscera of the victims to conduct chemical analysis. Their clothes were kept for investigation, while skin bits from in and around the bullet wounds were preserved for ballistic analysis. The autopsies were held in front of judicial magistrates and the entire proceedings were photographed and videographed and the recordings handed over to the judicial officers.
More than 100 people were admitted to hospital after the violence and among them, 11 were treated for bullet injuries. G. Princeton, a 22-year-old student, was hit by a stray bullet and had to have his right leg amputated.
M. Ananda Kannan (35), a father of four, and N. Balakumar (24) suffered bullet wounds on their knees, while Selvam was hit on the right side of his hip.
“I am unable to go to sea now. Though the bullet was removed, it pains a lot,” Selvam told Frontline .
Many of the injured, who were unfortunately mere passers-by at the time of the violence, are leading painful and miserable lives.
Action sought against police
Activists have demanded action against erring police officials for the firing and other issues relating to the May 22 incidents. Pointing out that no police officers have been arrested or charged in connection with the killings, a recent report from Reuters, quoting “a State government document”, claimed that “15 police weapons were discharged in total including three self-loading rifles (SLRs)”.
It further said that of the 69 live bullets used, 30 had been fired from the three SLRs. “The police fired an additional four rounds from .303 rifles and 12 shots from .410 weapons,” it claimed.
Rights groups such as the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisation and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) have demanded action against the police officials. A public inquest held on the Thoothukudi firing by a team of retired officials, including judges, bureaucrats and police officers, and social activists, called for a full administrative and criminal investigation into the May 22 firing and violence.
The inquest was organised by People’s Watch, Madurai, and other rights groups. The inquest, published on July 14, 2018, and handed over to the commission of inquiry and the CBI, too, cited evidence pointing to violation of standard operating procedures and possible mala fide intent.
A team of lawyers has taken up the cases of the victims. Meanwhile, the environmental activist Mughilan, who, at a recent media conference in Chennai, alleged the involvement of higher police officials in the May 22 incidents, has been missing since the last week of February.
A CB-CID enquiry has been launched to trace him.
