The Karnataka High Court on Monday warned the state government that it would entrust the investigation into the March 2 incident to an independent agency, like the CBI, if the state fails to conduct a fair probe into the matter. A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen, directed Advocate-General Vijay Shankar to seek instructions from the authorities on the investigation without involving any officer indicted in the R.K. Dutta report. “See how, minus the CBI, an investigation can be conducted to satisfy everyone. One who is being investigated cannot be an investigator,” it said.
The court said it would not let the situation slip away like how it happened on March 2. “Do you (state) want a fresh eruption and courts to stop functioning? We will not let such a thing to happen again. We are concerned with truth emerging and not with boosting the morale of police,” said Justice Sen, when the state said the court should have faith in the state police. The court also took the media, particularly electronic media, to task, saying freedom of speech and expression is not absolute when news broadcasting has turned into a trade with channels pulling each other down in the fight for breaking news.
The court said it is mysterious that the state has asked R.K. Dutta to not continue with the probe when he has clearly stated in his report that he is unable to identify the policemen, who attacked advocates. Mr Vijay Shankar said the state has now appointed Pranab Mohanty, an IGP-rank officer who has worked in the CBI for over seven years, to probe the incident. “The state has already registered 173 cases. It is difficult to identify the accused as several photographs have been captured on mobile phones. We have sent all photographs to forensic sciences laboratories and they are sending them back in 20 days,” he said.
But the Chief Justice said there were several incidents of police excesses and they have not been probed. “Why are the policemen seen in photographs not arrested? Has there been any action against electronic media who aggravated the situation by airing false breaking news of two policemen dying in action on March 2,” said Justice Sen.
Filing the Dutta report in a sealed cover, the government said that it was doing so because the Cabinet was still going through it, even as the court sought the report. The matter was adjourned to Thursday.