Judicial commission visits Madurai jallikattu stir venues

Initially the judge visited the Tamukkam ground where thousands of students had protested last month. He was accompanied by Madurai Collector, K Veera Raghav Rao, Madurai City Police Commissioner, Shailesh Kumar Yadav, and City Police Deputy Commissioner, Arun Sakthi Kumar. 

Details about the protest was presented to Rajeswaran by Shailesh Kumar Yadav. He was also shown clippings from various papers (English and Tamil). Rajeswaran also visited Sellur, where a rail roko, was staged for a week. Madurai Railway Junction and the vadivasal at Alanganallur were also part of his schedule.  He stated that his visit has been wrongly projected as inspection and inquiry but it is a mere field visit of the protest spots. 

“I have just begun to speak to some of the police officials. This is just a beginning and not the end,” he said. He promised to meet the public after a fortnight to obtain their views about the events. The meeting would be held in Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem and in Madurai district where there had been several incidents of violence. He assured that he would also get the views of students, youngsters, women and various other sections who had participated in the protests. 

In January, there was a historical protest in the state by students and youngsters demanding conduct of the bull-taming event (jallikattu). It was marked by violence at various places. The State government had therefore appointed a one-member judicial commission, headed by Retd High Court Judge Rajeshwaran to probe into the police excess during the violence. 

Following the appointment, Rajeswaran had visited Coimbatore and Salem on Thursday and interacted with the officials of police and revenue department. Separate hearings would be conducted in various places and following that his recommendation would be submitted to the government.