Madras HC nixes contempt plea against CBI in Thoothukudi police firing case

Chennai, Sep 29 (UNI) The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed a petition seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against CBI Director Praveen Sood over the investigation into the case relating to the 2018 Thoothukudi police firing that had claimed 13 lives after the Anti-Sterlite protests demanding closure of Vedanta's copper smelting plant, turned violent.

As the incident drew strong condemnations, the High Court had ordered a CBI probe into it in August 2018. The contempt plea was filed against the CBI for alleged non-compliance with the high court's August 14, 2018, order directing the agency to unearth the facts behind the police firing incident. The petitioner, K.Kathiresan of Madurai, cited alleged defects in the CBI probe that had led to dropping of the disciplinary action against erring police officers. Kathiresan contended that in 2018, the court directed it to 'get to the bottom of things' without restricting its probe to the issues highlighted by the court.

Though Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission's report named the officers responsible for the incident, the CBI filed chargesheets only against a single official - police inspector R Thirumalai - and 101 protesters, he said, adding, the CBI had given a clean chit to the officers involved, resulting in the dropping of disciplinary proceedings against them. Earlier, the court had taken note of the compliance report submitted by the State which said that under the previous DMK government further action was dropped in the disciplinary proceedings initiated against the then Thoothukudi Collector N.Venkatesh, the then Inspector General of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav and the then DIG Kapil Kumar C.Saratkar.

When the plea came up for hearing last evening, a Division Bench comprising Justices CV.Karthikeyan and R.Sakthivel refused to entertain the petition seeking contempt proceedings, citing the pendency of protest petition before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Madurai, against the CBI's chargesheet in the case. The judges said they could express any opinion on the matter as it is pending consideration before the CJM court, which is the competent court. Moreover, the relevant records, witness statements, etc. required to decide the matter are not before them, but before the CJM, they said.

The judges also disposed of the batch of PILs on which the 2018 order had been passed, by holding that no further orders can be issued.

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