Scores of journalists yesterday staged a sit-in at the Kerala High Court protesting at what they termed was “hooliganism” of a section of lawyers.
The lawyers on Tuesday allegedly manhandled television crew, including a woman reporter, and locked up the media room saying they were distorting facts after the arrest of a government counsel on charges of rape attempt.
The court premises also witnessed a pitched battle between the two sides, and the police had a tough time to bring the situation under control.
Women journalists said the lawyers hurled abuses at them before they were flushed out of the media room and later while sitting in protest outside.  Journalists unions also took out protest marches at many places, including the state capital here, against “the attempts to silence the media.” 
The Kerala High Court Advocates Association, which has been at the forefront of a campaign against “framing and arresting” its member in the rape case, said it had nothing to explain.
“We have nothing to say. Nothing to offer, and we don’t want to speak to journalists,” said its president S U Nazar. “We are going to meet the (acting) chief justice.”
In a letter to Advocate General Sudhakar Prasad earlier, the lawyers alleged the police misused the media to give extensive publicity to the arrest of government pleader Dhanesh Mathew Manjooran.
He was arrested after a woman raised an alarm saying he had tried to molest her on a road at the busy Convent Junction in Kochi.
The letter said “the way in which the police published the news and framed the lawyer” are against the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court. However, state police chief Loknath Behera said the complaint was genuine.
“The mode and approach of the police in violating the rulings and flashing the news which has unnecessarily tarnished the image of lawyer fraternity at large and the unnecessary comments prefixed along with the name of the lawyer is improper and needs to be condemned,” the letter said.
The KHCAA had in the morning convened an extraordinary general body meeting to discuss the issue of alleged “manhandling of certain lawyers by media persons inside the High Court building” the previous day.