HC grants conditional bail to advocates in murder case

Chennai , May 12 (UNI) The Madras High Court has granted conditional bail to six advocates arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a lawyer inside the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court premises, Egmore.

Granting bail to the advocates, Justice K N Basha observed that it was an unfortunate case where both the victim and accused were practising lawyers.

''Members of legal fraternity should maintain diginity all the time as they practiced a noble profession,'' the Judge said.

The Judge, ordering their release, asked them to execute a bond for Rs 25,000 each and furnish two other sureties for a likesum amount each. He also directed them to stay in Coimbatore and report to the R S Puram police station twice a day and sign the register.

Another accused S Ashok, who was also granted bail was ordered by the court to stay at Villupuram and report to the police there twice daily.

On February 22, advocate Rajinikanth, who was facing several criminal cases was hacked to death by a gang with lethal weapons inside the court premises. They attacked two more people, who tried to save Rajinikanth, and threatened other onlookers.

Advocates D Kannan, Kathiresan, R Gowtham, Sathya, Sivanesan and Thirugnanam, were arrested on February 23 and 25, respectively.

According to police, the murder was committed following a dispute over election to the Egmore Bar Association.

However, Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) president and Tamil Nadu Advocate Association president (TNAA) S Prabhakaran, counsels for the accused lawyers argued that there was not only delay in giving report to police, but also discrepancies in police version.

''No convincing reasons had been given by police against one of the accused, who voluntarily surrendered on coming to know that he had been included as a suspect,'' the counsels submitted.

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