Clash at court: CBI charge-sheets 20 advocates

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a charge sheet against 20 advocates in connection with the clash that took place outside the City Civil Court Complex here in March 2012.

CBI sources said that 20 advocates have been charged with rioting, unlawful assembly, voluntarily causing hurt, deterring public servants from discharging their duty and mischief by using fire or explosive substance. The charge sheet was filed before the special CBI court under the Sections 149, 143, 147, 148, 294, 323, 324, 325, 333, 342, 353, 355, 435, 506 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 (1) of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

On Monday, the CBI had filed nine charge sheets against police officials and electronic media houses and reporters. The CBI had pressed charges of criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, language etc, in these charge sheets. Two IPS officers B R Ravikanthe Gowda, the then DCP (Northeast) and G R Ramesh, the then DCP (Central) were also charge-sheeted under different IPC sections.

The media houses and journalists who have been charge-sheeted are TV9 and its authorised representatives Mahendra Mishra, Nagesh Gowda and Kiran (charge sheet-7); Samaya TV and its authorised representatives Ravi Pathy Chandrasekhar, K M Manjunath and Narendra Madikeri (charge sheet-8) and Suvarna TV and its authorised representatives Vishweshwar Bhat and M C Chintan (charge sheet 9).

On March 2, 2012, a clash had ensued between advocates, media and police personnel after former minister and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy was produced in a court in an illegal mining case.

Advocates had objected to the presence of TV journalists at the court premises and what started as a heated argument soon turned violent. The police later had to resort to lathicharge to disperse the clashing groups.

Last year, the Supreme Court had set aside the Karnataka High Court order for constituting a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe the matter and ordered a CBI investigation.