Lawyers, bankers at loggerheads

Chennai: Two bank officials who went to enquire about a default on a loan for a luxury car to a lawyer's office in the Madras high court were allegedly assaulted by a group of advocates.

However, the lawyer, in his complaint, claimed that he was the victim of the assault in his office by the bank officials and their henchmen.

The incident occurred on November 27 in room No. 208 of the new advocates chambers where Sivanan-dam, manager of State Bank of India, Pallavaram branch, went to meet lawyer Duraikannan.

The advocate's client, Muthu, who had reportedly defaulted on a car loan from the bank, had told the debt recovery tribunal (DRT) that the vehicle was with Duraikannan.

The DRT had appointed lawyer Radhakrishna-murthy as an advocate commissioner to help the bank officials recover the car. Based on Muthu's revelation that the car was with his lawyer, the advocate commissioner took the bank manager and his team to Duraikannan's chamber around 2.30 pm to enquire about the vehicle.

However, Duraikannan and over a dozen lawyers abused and assaulted Sivanandam and his senior manager Munindrakumar and two other recovery agents inside the locked chamber after sending the advocate commissioner out.

They were locked in for more than three hours and later, after police intervention, based on an SOS from a senior SBI official, the advocate group allegedly released their victims. Sivanandam lodged a complaint with the high court police station.

Duraikannan, too, lodged a complaint saying that the bank officials had abused and assaulted him. "We are enquiring into both complaints. We have registered two FIRs based on the complaints from the two sides," the police said.

It may be noted that lawyers were in the news in the last week for allegedly threatening a green activist and also assaulting a customs official in the customs headquarters.