Police firing victims not to pursue legal action

Among the eight persons killed from bullets entering their head or body from behind or the side, 40-year-old Jansi was shot a few hundred metres away from her house in a narrow street close to Thoothukudi’s seafront. She was shot through the ear, the report into her death showed.

A bullet went through the forehead of 34-year-old Mani Rajan. “The deceased would appear to have died of penetrating injury to the brain due to the firearm bullet injury to the right side of forehead,” Mani’s autopsy report said. The dead also included a man in his 50s, six men in their 40s, and three men in their early 20s.

The head of the forensic science department at the Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital, where the autopsies were conducted, declined to comment asdid two of the principal examiners.

The shootings are being investigated by a court-mandated enquiry commission as well as the police. Officials familiar with the investigations said they were not likely to conclude “any time soon”. Fifteen police weapons were discharged in total, including three self-loading rifles (SLR), according to documents submitted to the commission.

Of 69 live bullets used, 30 were fired from the three SLRs. Police fired an additional four rounds from .303 rifles and 12 shots from .410 weapons.

The Police Standing Orders, an exhaustive manual on police action, recommends the use of .303 and .410 rifles as a last resort against violent crowds.

Unlike the colonial-era .303 and .410, the SLR is modern rifle capable of continuous fire, said former Kerala DGP Jacob Punnose.

“There is no illegality per se,” he said, referring to the use of SLRs in such circumstances. “But it definitely goes against principle of minimum force.”