By IANS,
Chennai : Police cases were filed against 30 lawyers here Wednesday after they protested and tore pictures of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, police said.
The lawyers were holding protests in the Madras High Court premises against these leaders’ alleged apathy towards sufferings of minority Tamils in Sri Lanka, police said.
The lawyers have been charged with unlawful assembly and insulting national leaders, police officials said.
“A first information report has been registered by police,” an official told IANS.
While the registration of cases caused a flutter in legal circles, police officials ruled out possibilities of any arrests.
Meanwhile, advocates’ bodies angry over the delay in suspending senior police officials who had allegedly assaulted lawyers in the Madras High Court campus announced a one-day boycott of courts Thursday.
“Over three weeks have elapsed after the full bench of the Madras High Court asked the government to suspend Additional Commissioner of Police A.K. Vishwanathan and Joint Commissioner of Police J. Ramasubramani in mid-March for exceeding the orders of Police Commissioner K. Radhakrishnan on Feb 19 and assaulting unarmed lawyers and there is zilch from the state government,” activist lawyer T. Mohan told IANS.
While officials have since challenged the orders in the Supreme Court, the state government is yet to take a decision on the “recommendations” of the high court which lawyers adhered to by returning to work.
Officials here said since the bench “recommended” the suspension but did not order it, the recommendation was being studied for implications.
Lawyers’ protests against the state and central governments against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan situation had led to violence and clashes with police in the court premises.