New SIT for City court mayhem

The Supreme Court on Friday reconstituted the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Karnataka High Court to probe the March 2 clash of lawyers, police and media persons in Bangalore.

A bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and S J Mukhopadhaya replaced the SIT headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, and appointed a fresh committee with the concurrence of counsels representing different parties.

The committee will now comprise one Additional DGP each of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, a DIG rank officer posted in the CBI and who is essentially familiar with Kannada, and Inspector In-charge of Ulsoor Gate police station in Bangalore.

The bench directed the new SIT to submit its report to the court within three months.
The court nominated new members for the committee after senior counsel K K Venugopal, representing petitioner Advocates’ Association, and K V Vishwanathan, appearing for the Karnataka government consented to the proposal forwarded by the bench.

During the hearing, Venugopal objected to the composition of the SIT set up under the chairmanship of former CBI director R K Raghavan by the High Court, contending that it  included several top police officers who were facing charges in the case. 

The bench was hearing the special leave petition assailing the HC verdict delivered on May 16.

Among the slew of directions, the High Court had asked for the constitution of the SIT to probe the March 2 incident and also the complaints lodged by advocates, police as well as media persons.

The court had also directed the Centre to consider the modalities of regulating broadcasting media, including provision of a mechanism for addressing grievances in the realm of broadcasting.