CBI files 9 charge sheets in B’luru court clashes

The CBI on Monday filed nine charge sheets including three against media personnel in connection with the 2012 clashes outside a Bengaluru court during production of mining baron G Janardhana Reddy.

The agency filed its charge sheets before the special CBI court in Bengaluru. Three of these are against media personnel belonging to three TV channels while four are against police personnel and rest of them are against various other actors of the clash, CBI sources said here on Monday. 

They said more charge sheets will be filed soon.

The charges levelled against three regional channels and their reporters are alleged criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony among others. Last year, the Supreme Court had ordered CBI investigation into the clashes outside the Bengaluru court during production of Reddy, saying inquiry by the agency was necessitated as the incident had occurred in a court complex. The bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam had set aside a Karnataka High Court order constituting SIT to probe into the matter and directed the CBI to investigate the case.

The bench, also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, directed the SIT to immediately hand over all the records pertaining to the probe to the CBI.

On March 2, 2012, a scuffle had ensued between lawyers, police and media persons in a Bengaluru civil court complex premises when Reddy, a former minister in Karnataka, was to be produced in 

connection with an illegal mining case.