A major clash broke out inside Tis Hazari court premises on Saturday afternoon between the Delhi Police and Lawyers allegedly over a parking issue. Both lawyers and Police sustained injuries and several vehicles were damaged in this incident.
A former President of the Delhi Bar association and an advocate who claimes to be present at the time of the incident said that around 2:45 pm, an advocate parked his car outside the lock-up inside the court premise, a parking spot which is mainly used by the police to park their vehicles used to bring prisoners to the court for the appearances. He said “An argument between the advocate and the police officer turned violent. the police took the advocate inside the lock-up and started thrashing him. Meanwhile, the word of the incident spread” adding to story he said that the “rumour” was that at least four advocates, who came to the aide of the advocate taken inside the lock-up, were also taken inside the lock-up and ill-treated by the Police officers.
Responding back to the allegation, the Delhi government in a statement said that the officers of the 3rd battalion posted outside the lock-up had requested to park the vehicle in the designated parking allotted to the lawyers as it would have hindered the movement of the police vehicles. “ in protest, large numbers of lawyers assembled near the lock-up. A proof in the form of a CCTV recording shows the lawyers forcefully entered the lock-up and manhandled the officers present on duty” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the whole incident left 21 vehicles including jail vans torched and damaged; 20 police officers including additional deputy commissioner of police(North) Harendra Singh, station house officers of Kotwali and civil lines station sustained injuries during the clash. Police said that eight advocated have also sustained injuries. A few journalists covering the incident were also heckled and their mobile phones while covering the whole incident were allegedly snatched by lawyers.
The news of the clash between the police officers and the lawyers is not new, Delhi in past has seen many such incidents erupting between the two but what remains the question is that should the court proceedings which are already impending along with the people suffer the brunt of these incidents.