Chennai, May 22 (IANS): Prayer meetings were held amid tight security here on Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of the Thoothukudi police firing in which 13 people were killed. The protesters were demanding closure of Vedanta's Sterlite copper smelter plant for causing environmental pollution.
Near and dear ones remembered the victims of the firing at various events. Anti-nuclear activist S.P. Udayakumar was taken into preventive custody in the Kanyakumari district while trying to go to Thoothukudi to attend a condolence meeting.
After the firing, the Tamil Nadu government ordered closure of the plant and also appointed a one-man commission, headed by retired High Court Justice Aruna Jagadeesan, to probe into the violence and the shooting.
Hearing public interest litigations in August 2018, the Madras High Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the firing.