Delhi Police remove its two officers following high court’s order, one more FIR registered against police on lawyer’s complaint

New Delhi: Complying with the Delhi high Court’s Sunday order, the Delhi Police on Monday transferred two senior officers — special commissioner of police (law and

New Delhi: Complying with the Delhi high Court’s Sunday order, the Delhi Police on Monday transferred two senior officers — special commissioner of police (law and order) Sanjay Singh and additional deputy commissioner of police, Harendra Kumar Singh — from their current charges. The HC had on Saturday directed the police commissioner to transfer the two officers during pendency of the inquiry by a retired judge into Saturday’s violent clash between lawyers and the police at Tis Hazari courts, which left more than three dozen people, including two advocates with gunshots, injured and over a dozen vehicles torched or vandalised. The HC also directed the police commissioner to suspend two assistant sub-inspectors for allegedly firing on advocates and dragging a lawyer into the court’s lock-up room.

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“We have complied with the high court’s directions,” said Anil Mittal, Delhi Police’s additional spokesperson.

On Monday, one more FIR was registered against the police on the complaint of a lawyer in connection with Saturday’s clashes. With this, the total number of cases registered in the matter is seven, of which five have been registered against the police on the complaints of separate lawyers.

Six FIRs were registered between Saturday and Sunday — one of them was on the district judge’s complaint and another of molestation by policemen as alleged by a woman advocate. All these cases are being probed by the crime branch’s special investigation team (SIT).

“A lawyer on Monday turned up at the Subzi Mandi police station and filed his complaint. The lawyer alleged that many policemen assaulted him and tried to kill him. A case was registered on his complaint,” said an investigator from the SIT on the condition of anonymity. The officer refused to divulge identity of the complainant and other details related to the FIR.

On Monday, the SIT recorded statements of as many as a dozen policemen who were allegedly injured in the Saturday’s clash with the lawyers. The statement of the two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs), against whom department action was taken on Sunday — were also recorded to ascertain how the parking brawl started and what made them fire from their pistol.

The SIT, along with forensic experts on Sunday visited the Tis Hazari courts to inspect the court’s lock-up where the parking altercation, clash, torching and vandalism of vehicles began on Saturday. They collected footage of around 20 CCTV cameras, in which the entire clash was recorded.

Investigators scanned footage of four cameras that captured the parking brawl and scuffle inside the court’s lock-up. “One footage confirms that the advocate involved in the parking row was dragged inside the lock-up room by the ASI who has been suspended. The footage of CCTV cameras installed inside the lock-up show that the advocate was not assaulted and came out with an assistant commissioner of police within three minutes,” said the officer cited above.