Court violence:HC orders SIT probe
BANGALORE: A High Court Special Bench on Wednesday ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the March 2 violence at City Civil Court involving advocates, media persons and police personnel.
Hearing a bunch of PILs, including the one filed by the Advocates Association, Bangalore, seeking a CBI enquiry, the Special Bench comprising Justice Ajit Gunjal and Justice B V Nagarathna directed the state to form an SIT, headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, and comprising DGP (CID) Roop Kumar Datta, and three other senior police officers within 10 days.
The Bench also said the SIT had to submit its report within three months, and the state had to provide all basic facilities for the investigation team.
The SIT had to investigate all the cases registered against advocates, police personnel and media persons with regard to March 2 violence, the Bench said, and added that police personnel and media organisations should provide all the materials they had on the incident to the SIT.
The court directed the Centre and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to study the possibility of setting up an organisation to control electronic media and to give directions to it on how to report sensitive issues.
On March 2, when former minister G Janardhana Reddy, arrested in connection with mining scam case, was produced at the CBI Court on the City Civil Court premises, clashes broke out among advocates, police personnel and media persons.
The state ordered an enquiry into the incident under the supervision of CID DGP R K Datta, and then another enquiry by retired judge Vaidyanathan.
Meanwhile, the Advocates Association, Bangalore, filed a PIL before the HC seeking a CBI inquiry.
First, the petition was heard by Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen, who later recused himself from the case. Then the case was moved to the Special Bench.