Who gave order to issue weapons: CBI seeks documents to probe anti-Sterlite protests case

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has reportedly begun an investigation into the anti-Sterlite protests in which 13 people were killed in May this year. As reported by news agency ANI, the CBI has summoned documents from Tamil Nadu Police for the probe into the case. 

The documents include information on who gave the order to issued the 15 weapons that were used to open fire and who signed and collected these weapons. The CBI has also reportedly asked for documents which have details of who ordered the firing which led to the death of 13 protesters and injuring several others in the protests.

The statements of the family members of the thirteen victims who died have been recorded along with statements of those who were injured in the firing. 

The CBI probe comes days after an autopsy report of the victims revealed that 12 of the 13 protesters were killed when police opened fire on a demonstration against Vedanta's copper smelter in Tamil Nadu in May. According to the report they were hit by bullets in the head or chest, and half of those were shot from behind. 

Two others died after bullets pierced the sides of their heads, according to the reports produced by forensic medicine experts from several government hospitals. In the case of 17-year-old J Snowlin, the youngest to be killed, a bullet entered the back of his head and exited through her mouth, the autopsy found.

On May 22, at least 13 people were killed and over 60 persons were injured after police opened fire at people protesting against the Sterlite Copper smelter plant in Thoothukudi. 

After the autopsy report, the family of one of the deceased said that their stand has been vindicated. "We had been saying that they were shot in their heads by the police. But nobody listened. Now, it's revealed in the autopsy report," the cousin of a victim killed in the protests in Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu said.