Chennai, Nov 16 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday ordered for payment of additional Rs 5 lakh each to the families of those killed in the Thoothukudi police firing at the Sterlite plant of Vedanta group in 2018.

The state government had in the Legislative Assembly meeting in October 2022 announced to provide Rs 5 lakh as extra compensation to the victims' families.

With the announcement, the state will have to spend Rs 65 lakh extra from its exchequer for the families of the 13 deceased. The state had already paid a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the families of protestors who died in the police firing.

The Justice Aruna Jagadeesan commission constituted by the government to study the police firing, had submitted its report and the Chief Minister had, during the presentation of the report in the state legislative assembly in October 2018, announced that a solatium of Rs 5 lakh extra will be paid to the families of each protestor killed.

Coming down heavily on the police officers,the report had, " The conclusion then becomes irresistible that there had been excess on the part of the police. The totality of the facts and circumstances would not suggest that the police had been acting in the exercise of the right of private defense. As a matter of fact, it has not even been the version of the police."

Notably, the police officers who are severely accountable are IG Shailesh Kumar Yadav, DIG Kapil Kumar C. Karatkar and SP, P . Mahendran, and 17 other officers.