CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the state police to take stern action against those who indulge in land-grabbing and lawyers who involve in such illegal activities.
“This court directs the DGP to issue suitable instructions to the station house officers to take stern action against not only the parties concerned but also against the lawyers who indulge in such activities,” Justice Sunder Mohan said in a recent order.
“The sequence of events narrated by the parties reveals a painful situation. The lawyers have acted as henchmen for the litigants. They are expected to use the brain and not the brawn,” the judge deplored. He, further, noted the government advocate has informed this has been done in an organised manner, where the lawyers have “created WhatsApp groups to indulge in such activities” and get away under the cloak of this profession. He urged the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and lawyers associations to cooperate with the police officials in dealing with such activities “with an iron fist”.
The directions were issued while granting bail to three persons, including a lawyer, in a case in which a group of lawyers barged into disputed premises and damaged articles and CCTV cameras, besides assaulting the employees and security guards.
The matter pertains to the dispute between RB Srinivasan who runs Marg Limited, and Sushil Lalwani and Aarthi Lalwani on the purchase of the land measuring 65,836 sqft at Karapakkam on OMR. Sushil and Aarthi were stated to have purchased the land for Rs 51.92 crore. Subsequently, sale deeds were executed in favour of eight companies which were special purpose vehicle companies belonging to the duo.
However, Srinivasan claimed the total sale amount was fixed at Rs 103 crore and the duo failed to pay the balance amount.
They filed civil suits with the local courts and lodged complaints against each other at Kannagi Nagar police station. In the meantime, recently, a group of lawyers led by A Vijayakumar, at the instance of Sushil and Aarthi, had barged into the premises, damaged articles belonging to Srinivasan and assaulted his staff. Subsequently, a criminal case was registered. Seeking bail, they filed the petitions in the high court.
The judge granted bail to the duo with the condition of paying Rs 3 lakh to the TN Legal Services Authority, apart from depositing Rs 10 lakh to the credit of the criminal case. Moreover, they were directed to execute a bond of Rs 1 lakh each with two sureties. Vijayakumar was granted bail with the condition of executing a bond for Rs 25, 000 and two sureties.