By IANS,
Chennai : Pitched battles were fought outside the Madras High Court here Thursday afternoon after the police arrested 17 lawyers for attacking Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy.
As police used baton on lawyers who were protesting and shouting slogans, about 30 lawyers and several bystanders were injured, witnesses said.
A division bench of the court Thursday morning ordered that a five-judge bench would hold an enquiry into the attack on Swamy by advocates inside the court premises Tuesday.
Lawyers sympathetic to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tuesday hurled rotten eggs at Swamy inside the court in the presence of the judges and shouted anti-India slogans.
A section of the lawyers was holding protests over the sufferings of the civilian Tamils in Sri Lanka caught in the conflict between the armed forces and the Tamil Tigers.