The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a judicial probe into the alleged police excesses against striking Tamil Nadu lawyers by a panel headed by Justice BN Srikrishna, a former Supreme Court judge.
A bench headed by CJI K.G. Balakrishnan also ordered transfer of five senior police
officers of Chennai, purportedly for allowing police to enter the Madras High Court premises and beating up the lawyers on February 19.
The court, however, made it clear that the officers were being transferred to facilitate a free and fair probe and there should not be any presumption of guilt against them.
The state informed the court that JCP Ramasubramanian had already been transferred and another officer of his rank, Sandeep Rai Rathore, and three DCPs — Sarangan, Prem Anand Sinha and Paneer Selvam — would be shifted immediately.
Appearing for the state, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati said Tamil Nadu was ready to offer an amount of Rs. 20 lakh to meet the cost of reconstruction of the court premises and compensation to injured lawyers.