Sterlite Copper was forced to shut the 400,000-tonne-per-year smelter in the port city of Thoothukudi by Tamil Nadu state in 2019 after police killed 13 demonstrators protesting against the plant.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi in New Delhi and Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)