Lawyers clash with police

Eight police personnel, including two station house officers (SHOs), and 18 lawyers were injured in an alleged clash between police personnel and lawyers in the Karkardooma court on Thursday afternoon. HT reports.

Eight police personnel, including two station house officers (SHOs), and 18 lawyers were injured in an alleged clash between police personnel and lawyers in the Karkardooma court on Thursday afternoon.

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Four police vehicles were damaged in the melee that began around 3.30pm and continued till 6pm, police said.

The clash began over an argument some lawyers had with the staff of the Anand Vihar police station over the issue of manhandling a junior engineer (JE) of the MCD and beating up his six labourers.

Nishant Singh, a JE in Shahadra south zone, and his labourers had gone to demolish a portion of a building owned by one Sujeet of Anand Vihar’s Inderpuri area. “We were doing our duty when some people from Sujeet’s side started thrashing our labourers. We all came to the police station to lodge a complaint. Meanwhile, Sujeet’s supporters, which included a few lawyers, arrived at the police station and tried to manhandle me. They tore some official documents of the police when the cops tried to stop them,” Singh said.

Constable Manoj thrashed two lawyers, Vindo Bhardwaj and Vikas, to control the mob, said a senior police officer. The agitated lawyers then called their Karkardooma colleagues.

“Around 500 lawyers assembled in the court premises and started pelting stones at police personnel. They vandalised the police post inside the court premises and damaged vehicles. Two SHOs, a sub-inspector, and their five subordinates were injured,” said the officer.

No case was registered till late in the evening.