Hapur, Sep 6 (UNI) A case was registered against 51 named policemen, including a Circle Officer (CO) and Inspectors, and 70 to 90 unidentified personnel on Wednesday in connection with the lathicharge on lawyers in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh, police sources said here.
The sources said that the case was lodged by an advocate Sudhir Kumar Rana at Hapur Nagar police station following orders of the Allahabad High Court.
“The complainant has alleged that on August 29 the lawyers were lathicharged by the police personnel while they were returning to their chambers after a peaceful demonstration,” they said.
Police sources also said that it has been alleged that the several lawyers were injured in the police action and some of them fell unconscious due to severe beatings and excessive bleeding. “It has been alleged that the accused police officers did not stop there and continued to thrash the lawyers mercilessly,” they said.
The sources said that it has been alleged that later the police personnel forcibly entered the chambers of the lawyers and subjected them to further physical assault. “Taking cognizance of the incident the High Court had directed to lodge an FIR on the complaint given by the lawyers, while directing the state government to nominate a retired judge in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the matter,” they said.
Police sources said that on the basis of the complaint, a case has been registered under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult, criminal intimidation, attempt to commit culpable homicide, assault or criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty and robbery.
Sources said that the accused include CO of Hapur, Station Officer (SO) Sateendra Prakash Singh, Additional Inspector Balram Singh Yadav, female station in-charge Pratima Tyagi, Hafizpur police station in-charge Brajesh Kumar, SI Surendra Singh and ASI Harinder Singh, along with 44 other personnel.
It may be noted that the lawyers were lathicharged by the police in Hapur district during demonstration to protest against registration of a case against an advocate on August 29. It was claimed that 30 lawyers were injured in the police action.
The incident led to state-wide protests by the lawyers across UP. To protest against the incident the lawyers are abstaining from judicial work in almost all the courts in the state, including Allahabad High Court.
The agitating lawyers are demanding to lodge a case against police officers responsible for the incident and to withdraw cases against the advocates.
