Three years after police allegedly gunned down 13 unarmed anti-Sterlite protesters in Tuticorin, the Madras high court on Friday chastised the state for not booking anyone in the matter.

“Can we kill people and throw money at them and say that our job is done? Is that the society that we want to build? Just throwing money at some people and everything else is hushed up?” asked the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice T S Sivagnanam.

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Taking a serious view of the May 22, 2018 incident, the judges said that while the state had indeed remedied the nuisance that was created, the part with regard to punishment still remained unanswered. The punishment part should also be answered to prevent occurrence of such incidents in future, the judges observed. Considering the importance of the matter, the judges said it would be heard by the principal seat in Chennai, and adjourned it to August 9. The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Henri Tiphagne seeking a direction to the NHRC to reopen the police firing incident.

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