Delhi Riots : Lawyers Trying To Meet Detainees Assaulted By Police

While the inaction of the Delhi Police in controlling the violence in Delhi is being heavily criticized, new reports of a group of lawyers being beaten up today at a police station also came to the fore.

People protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act at the Khureji protest site, in North Delhi, were detained and taken to the Jagatpuri Police Station today. A group of lawyers received information regarding the same and proceeded to the station with an application under Section 41D of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to meet with the detainees. Police officials present, however, refused to entertain their request to meet the detainees on the pretext of the Station House Officer (SHO) not being present.

Later on, after persistent requests by the lawyers to grant them a meeting, certain police personnel proceeded to film videos of them. This led to a heated situation where the group questioned why they were being filmed, while more police officials came out and used force to push this group out of the police station. A police official was also seen pushing a female activist while other officials went on to snatch the phones of two female lawyers. The police went on to attack some of the lawyers, hurled abuses at them and charged them with lathis.

Speaking to LiveLaw, one of the female lawyers, Avani Bansal said "we waited for over an hour after being told that the SHO was not present. Then we again requested to meet the detainees. We were then told that there were no detainees. We asked them to then just provide us with a receipt of our application. At this point a few police officials started recording our video, and we protested as to why they were doing so. Then one official physically pushed a lady social activist. About 20-25 police officials then tried to overpower us, and began charging us with lathis and physically pushed us out." The police also went on to use foul language and threaten these lawyers, who allege that they were accused by the officials of spreading riots in the police station under the garb of being lawyers.

It has been learnt, through sources, that the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has been appraised of the incident, which has in turn written to the Commissioner of Police.

Currently, the lawyers are out and examining the legal options available to them, including approaching the court with a petition