Delhi cops and lawyers clash at Tis Hazari court, police van set ablaze
The lawyers at Delhi’s Tis Hazari court accused the police of firing at them, the police are yet to respond to the allegation.
Lawyers and police clashed at north Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court complex on Saturday during which several people were injured and vehicles vandalised and set on fire, officials from both sides and eyewitnesses said.
A police vehicle was set on fire, eight jail vans vandalised and at least two lawyers were hospitalised. A few journalists covering the clash were also allegedly assaulted during the clash.
Bar officials alleged the police opened fire at them without provocation and hit them with batons, a charge denied by officials of the force. They said a lawyer Vijay Verma received a bullet injury in the “barbaric act of Delhi Police.”
News agency Press Trust of India reported that additional commissioner of police (North District) Harinder Kumar, station house officers of Kotwali and Civil Lines, and the operator of the deputy commissioner of police (north) were injured.
Secretary of Tis Hazari Bar Association Jaiveer Singh Chauhan told the news agency that the clash began after a lawyer’s car allegedly hit a jail van following which an argument broke out between him and the police.
“He was then taken inside a lockup and beaten up badly. The SHO came but was not allowed inside. The district judges of the central and west district, along with six other judges went there but were unable to let the lawyer out,” Chauhan said, according to PTI.
Chauhan said the police fired four rounds of bullets after about 20 minutes while the judges were leaving the spot. The lawyer was released from the lockup after about half an hour, he claimed.
Gulzari Lal, a lawyer, showed his swollen wrist and alleged that the police had rained batons at him.
“It began over a parking dispute. The policeman pulled out his gun and began firing,” a lawyer, Varun Jain, said while speaking to HT.
Additional DCP (North) Singh said the lawyers wanted to take revenge for taking their colleague in the lockup.
“We intervened and didn’t allow lawyers to come inside. We closed the lockup from inside so that not only jawans but also prisoners, scheduled to be presented before the court, were not exposed to risk. When lawyers couldn’t get in, they wanted to break lockup by igniting a fire,” Singh was quoted as saying by Asian News International.
“By being inside we tried to save the lives of not only police personnel but prisoners also. If someone received bullet injuries it will come out in the medical report. We received injuries. I’m proud that I sustained injuries but I saved my people,” Singh said.
‘Irresponsible and criminal behaviour’
The Bar Council of India demanded that the “guilty” police officials were immediately arrested and put under suspension “failing which the situation will go beyond the control of the Government”.
“The Bar Council of India strongly condemns this action of the police as a result of which lawyers have been seriously injured by the police firing on a petty issue of car-parking. This proves the irresponsible and criminal behaviour of the police,” it said.
The council also appealed lawyers to maintain the peace and not to take law in their hands as their representative body itself has taken the issue very seriously.
“We strongly condemn brutal, unprovoked attack on lawyers by police at Tis Hazari courts. One lawyer is critical. A young lawyer was beaten in lockup in high-handedness by the police. They should be dismissed and prosecuted. We stand with Delhi lawyers,” the chairperson of the bar council, KC Mittal, said.
Ikrant Sharma, senior vice-president of the Tis Hazari Bar association, said that lawyers at all district courts in Delhi will strike on November 4.
“I would urge that the CCTV footage be examined to see whether it was the lawyer or the police who started the scuffle,” he said.
Secretary of the Delhi Bar Association, Jaiveer Singh Chauhan, said lawyers will abstain work and the strike would spread countrywide if no action is taken against the erring police officials.
He said that they are yet to take a call on the elections scheduled for Nov 5.
Delhi Police deployed a large number of personnel and anti-riot vehicles at the court complex after the violence.
Officials said the situation is now under control and that the undertrials, who were stuck inside the court premises during the clash, were returned to their respective prisons in police vehicles.