The counsel for Vedanta Group, Aryama Sundaram, has claimed before a special bench of the Madras High Court that the anti-Sterlite protests in Tuticorin were financed by Chinese companies which had vested interests the import of copper into India, reports The Times of India.

“These companies promoted and funded the agitations and protests against Sterlite. India’s import bill for copper is $2 billion, the demand was being met by Sterlite earlier,” he told the division bench comprising Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice V Bhavani Subbaroyan.

Sundaram explained that after the plant was shut down around 38 per cent of Indian copper demand was being met by foreign firms, who had replaced the supply which was produced by Sterlite previously.

The advocate made the submissions during a hearing of Vedanta’s plea against the Tamil Nadu government’s order to close the Sterlite plant in Tuticorin. Sundaram expressed doubt over the ability of the protesters on their own to assemble a group of more than 20,000 people for the demonstrations.