CHENNAI: On May 22, 2018, a Tamil Nadu police squad opened fire and killed 13 people protesting against the reopening of the Sterlite copper smelter in Thoothukudi. An inquiry commission was formed to investigate the killings, and a report was submitted by retired justice Aruna Jagadeesan. The contents of that report, however, continues to be a mystery.

A close relative of a victim of the police firing wonders how the report might have turned out. Uneducated and struggling to make ends meet, the relative, a Dalit living in a southern district of the State (exact location protected) goes about a daily grind, unable to escape the vacuum created by the killing of the family's breadwinner.

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Immediately after the incident, People's Watch, a Madurai-based independent organisation, had deployed a fact-finding team to probe the incident. Its preliminary report had argued that the police firing was not preceded by the mandatory lathi-charge and use of teargas. It had said most injuries and bullets were found above the waist of the victims.

These relatives of those killed in Paramakudi and around three of the 13 killed in Thoothukudi firing belong to Dalit communities of southern Tamil Nadu. Most in these communities are day labourers and farmhands.

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