Policemen and lawyers were involved in a clash in the Madras high court premises on February 19 last year. In the wake of a controversial CBI chargesheet, the advocates are up in arms and the case drags on, reports N. Asokan
K. Angayarkanni, a woman advocate of Madras high court, is livid. Her name figures in the chargesheet filed by the CBI investigating the infamous clash between policemen and lawyers on the Madras high court premises on February 19 last year. “I was grievously injured in the police action and had to be hospitalised. It is unfortunate that CBI has included my name while it has refused to name the senior police officers involved in the incident,” she says.
Angayarkanni is not alone. Many Chennai advocates were aghast when CBI, entrusted with the task of probing the incident, filed its chargesheet on January 12.In the incident in question, scores of advocates were brutally attacked by policemen. A police station inside the high court complex was set on fire. Even judges were not spared. AP Adityan, a sitting high court judge, was injured in the clash. Government property was damaged. All this happened in the full glare of TV cameras. In fact, some journalists were also attacked by the police. It all started when lawyers hurled eggs at Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy inside the court complex in the presence of judges. He was targetted for his anti-Tamil stand on the Sri Lanka issue. Two days later, when the police entered the court to arrest the advocates, an altercation ensued. It quickly snowballed into a full-fledged clash. The pitched battle lasted several hours.
A three-member division bench, headed by the then acting Chief Justice SJ Mukhopadhyay, ordered a CBI probe into the incident. Even ailing chief minister Karunanidhi offered personal apologies to those affected. Advocates filed scores of petitions in the high court.
On October 29, a special bench, comprising justice FM Ibrahim Kallifulla and justice R Bhanumathi, passed an order holding the then city police commissioner K Radhakrishnan, then ACP (Law and Order) AK Viswanathan, then joint commissioner of police (North) Ramasubramani and then DCP, Flower Bazaar police station, Prem Anand Sinha, responsible for the violence. The bench suggested suspension of the four officers. But the Tamil Nadu government challenged the order in the Supreme Court. The SLP (special leave petition) is still pending.
Meanwhile, CBI, which constituted a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to probe the incident, has filed six chargesheets in the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Chennai. Chargesheets were filed on 31 advocates, one law college student and 27 police personnel. But the advocates' demand for action against the four top cops was not fulfilled.
CBI did not comment on the matter because it was still pending in the Supreme Court. So agitated advocates filed petitions in the court asking it to reject the chargesheets as they did not include the names of the four senior police officers. But the magistrate accepted the chargesheets and asked the CBI to probe the issue further. Not satisfied with this order, the advocates’ associations called for a single-day token strike which went peacefully.
K. Angayarkanni, a woman advocate of Madras high court, is livid. Her name figures in the chargesheet filed by the CBI investigating the infamous clash between policemen and lawyers on the Madras high court premises on February 19 last year. “I was grievously injured in the police action and had to be hospitalised. It is unfortunate that CBI has included my name while it has refused to name the senior police officers involved in the incident,” she says.
Angayarkanni is not alone. Many Chennai advocates were aghast when CBI, entrusted with the task of probing the incident, filed its chargesheet on January 12.In the incident in question, scores of advocates were brutally attacked by policemen. A police station inside the high court complex was set on fire. Even judges were not spared. AP Adityan, a sitting high court judge, was injured in the clash. Government property was damaged. All this happened in the full glare of TV cameras. In fact, some journalists were also attacked by the police. It all started when lawyers hurled eggs at Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy inside the court complex in the presence of judges. He was targetted for his anti-Tamil stand on the Sri Lanka issue. Two days later, when the police entered the court to arrest the advocates, an altercation ensued. It quickly snowballed into a full-fledged clash. The pitched battle lasted several hours.
A three-member division bench, headed by the then acting Chief Justice SJ Mukhopadhyay, ordered a CBI probe into the incident. Even ailing chief minister Karunanidhi offered personal apologies to those affected. Advocates filed scores of petitions in the high court.
On October 29, a special bench, comprising justice FM Ibrahim Kallifulla and justice R Bhanumathi, passed an order holding the then city police commissioner K Radhakrishnan, then ACP (Law and Order) AK Viswanathan, then joint commissioner of police (North) Ramasubramani and then DCP, Flower Bazaar police station, Prem Anand Sinha, responsible for the violence. The bench suggested suspension of the four officers. But the Tamil Nadu government challenged the order in the Supreme Court. The SLP (special leave petition) is still pending.
Meanwhile, CBI, which constituted a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to probe the incident, has filed six chargesheets in the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Chennai. Chargesheets were filed on 31 advocates, one law college student and 27 police personnel. But the advocates' demand for action against the four top cops was not fulfilled.
CBI did not comment on the matter because it was still pending in the Supreme Court. So agitated advocates filed petitions in the court asking it to reject the chargesheets as they did not include the names of the four senior police officers. But the magistrate accepted the chargesheets and asked the CBI to probe the issue further. Not satisfied with this order, the advocates’ associations called for a single-day token strike which went peacefully.
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