Scores of Delhi Police officers including recently transferred Gandhi Nagar assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Manasvi Vashishta gathered outside the police headquarters on Jai Singh Road on Monday to seek a meeting with Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar over the recent face-off with lawyers in east Delhi’s Shahdara.
ACP Vashishta and Arun Kumar, the station house officer of the Shahdara police station, were transferred out after city lawyers called for an indefinite strike over the handling of an assault case of a lawyer Lalit Bansal.
The lawyers, who had gone on strike last week, had alleged that the ACP and the SHO threatened advocates who had gone to the police station to seek action against the accused in the Bansal assault case.
Vashishta, who was standing with police officers gathered outside the headquarters on Monday, said they only wanted to meet the police commissioner.
“Our demands are clear. We need to meet CP sir. There needs to be an SOP (standard operating procedure) to deal with such matters. If this happens to us, how will we fight to save the people of the city” Vashishta said amid chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Police Ekta Zindabad”. At 11:45am, Vashishta and the other police officers were taken inside police headquarters to meet the commissioner.
In a video message released on Sunday, Vashishta said that they were going to gather not against the advocates but against those who misuse the power.
{{/usCountry}}In a video message released on Sunday, Vashishta said that they were going to gather not against the advocates but against those who misuse the power.
{{/usCountry}}A police sub inspector, who was part of the gathering, said it was time they raised their voice. “There is a 30 minute video in which men wearing black coats were seen assaulting the ACP and the SHO and still, a transfer order has come for them. If we are wearing body cams and there is proof that we are not in the wrong, then why are we facing action?” he said.
The confrontation between the lawyers and police stems from an altercation between two sides in which lawyer Lalit Bansal suffered a head injury on October 23. An FIR was subsequently registered at the Shahdara police station on a complaint by advocate Amulya Ratan.
According to local bar association members, several lawyers visited the police station on October 23 demanding the immediate arrest of suspects present at the station. Advocates alleged that despite verbal assurances from the ACP and SHO, the suspects were released without arrest the following day, sparking an indefinite strike by lawyers that ended only after the two police officers were transferred last week.
Vashishta wrote to the police commissioner on October 31 requesting an urgent Sampark Sabha (open house) on November 2 to discuss the October 23 and 24 incidents at Shahdara police station.
In his letter, Vashishta called for a department-wide discussion -- to be broadcast live over a secure web link -- to review the sequence of events at the police station, address what he termed “adverse orders” despite evidence being in their favour, and the subsequent administrative action.
The letter also sought a discussion on similar incidents involving police personnel, particularly those arising in court premises, and a future plan to address such situations.
.