Kerala HC seeks report on clashes at port site
TRIVANDRUM: Kerala High Court (HC) has sought a detailed report on violent clashes that hurt many people, including 36 police officers, at a port construction site here overnight on Monday.
Justice Anu Sivaraman issued the direction to the state government while hearing a petition filed by the Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone seeking protection.
Construction of the all-weather port, envisaged as the biggest in India catering to feeder ports for their transhipment needs, remains stalled for 104 days due to local resistance.
Scores of displaced fishing families blockade the passage to the port’s construction site in the coastal Vizhinjam village in the state capital preventing the movement of men and materials.
The Latin Archdiocese spearheading the strike alleged that outsiders “engaged by the government and the port company” were triggering violence to invite police action.
Vicar general Eugene H. Pereira, one of the organisers of the protest, said the police were provoking the fishermen at the instance of the port builders.
He held the state government responsible for the violence and said they were doing it to prepare grounds for their forcible eviction.
“They were ready to leave the area without creating any trouble for the public as the talks were continuing,” he told the Gulf Today.
The police had earlier booked 85 protesters and their leaders, mostly catholic priests, including Archbishop Thomas J Neto of Latin Catholics.
The enraged fishing community went on a rampage clashing with the police guarding the port in riot gear, vandalising a police station and torching their vehicles.
Police have charged over 3,000 people with unleashing violence and some of them were “identified” with vandalism at the local police station.
Adani ports sources said they were awaiting the court verdict scheduled for Friday to resume work with the police protection as they were losing precious man-days by the stir.
Though the court intervened several times and ordered the police to provide protection, they said, they could not resume work due to the stiff local resistance.
Additional director general of police MR Ajith Kumar said many officers had got injured and vehicles and properties damaged in the mob atack.