The death toll in the police firing rose to 13 on Thursday as one more victim succumbed to injuries at the Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital.
On Wednesday night, K. Jayaraman, 55, of Usilampatti in Madurai district, who had suffered bullet injury, died. P. Selvasekar, 43, of Iruvappapuram near Sawyerpuram in the district, a victim of police lathi-charge, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday morning taking the toll to 13.
Though large-scale violence has stopped, minor skirmishes by the miscreants gave anxious moments to the residents and kept the police on tenterhooks. Two liquor shops — one at Bryant Nagar and the other second one at Sawyerpuram — were ransacked and set on fire by unidentified persons. Windscreens of 17 cars parked along North Car Street, East Car Street and T.R. Naidu Street were smashed on Wednesday night.
Since Anna Nagar near Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital has become the trouble spot, a huge posse of police personnel has been deployed in the area. Personnel from the Tamil Nadu Commando Force were deployed at Anna Nagar.
53 cases registered
The police picked up over 200 persons for interrogation for allegedly rioting. A section of them were produced before the court after medical check-up and remanded in judicial custody. “With the photographs and video clips taken during the violence, we’re identifying the hooligans and picking them up. So far 53 cases have been registered in connection with rioting,” police sources said.
In Tirunelveli, miscreants on Wednesday night pelted stones on two government buses — one at North High Ground Road and the other at South Bypass Road — damaging the windscreens.
Unidentified persons lobbed a torch made of cloth soaked in kerosene on the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation buses parked inside the KTC Nagar depot in the small hours of Thursday, with the aim of triggering a major destruction, but flame got extinguished as it landed on the target. The Palayamkottai and Melapalayam police have registered cases in connection with these incidents.
During the farmers’ grievance redressal meeting held at the District Collectorate in Nagercoil on Thursday, agitated agriculturists raised slogans against the State government and the police for “murdering 13 persons, who protested against Sterlite Copper.” The officials could continue the meeting only after the sloganeering subsided.
Published - May 25, 2018 01:13 am IST
