Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin has demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into the killing of three Tamils by Karnataka forest officials, instead of an inquiry by the Karnataka State police. The incident involved the deaths of Antonysamy, John Rose Peter, and Kumar, who were allegedly killed in an exchange of fire with personnel of the Karnataka State Forest Department. Raising the issue in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in Chennai, Udhayanidhi Stalin stated that the post-mortem report had clearly established that the three men were brutally murdered.
According to the report, the three had been tortured before being shot at point-blank range, with their ribs broken. Stalin questioned whether the Tamil Nadu government had written to Karnataka seeking an explanation about the incident and whether Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay had expressed his condemnation when he met his Karnataka counterpart D.K.
Shivakumar. Udhayanidhi Stalin also criticized the Tamil Nadu government for not taking sufficient action to support the victims’ families. He said the Chief Minister or his Cabinet colleagues should have visited the families and that the government should take steps to get justice for them and provide financial and legal assistance.
The Tamil Nadu government has planned to offer ₹10 lakh each to the families of the victims. Speaker J.C.P. Prabhakar stated that the House would have an elaborate discussion on the subject once the Ministers were ready with a proper reply, as the Law Minister and Forest Minister had already responded to the issue earlier.
