Lawyers' Organisation Demands Inclusion Of Retd Judge In SIT Probing Hapur Lathi-Charge Incident

Prayagraj: The Uttar Pradesh Bar Council on Friday demanded the inclusion of a retired Supreme Court or high court judge in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged police lathi-charge on advocates in Hapur earlier this week.
The advocates’ organisation will meet on Sunday to decide the future course of action, its chairman Shiv Kumar Gaur told PTI. He had earlier said the meeting was expected on Friday.
Gaur said the inclusion of a judicial expert in the probe team would help in the conduct of an impartial and comprehensive probe into the matter. The bar council chairman said they demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident and action against the guilty police personnel. He added that he came to know about the setting up of an SIT through the media.
“We want the inclusion of a retired judge of the Supreme Court or the high court as a judicial expert in the SIT and placing some other officials in place of those from police for an impartial and broad-based inquiry into the matter to bring the truth,” Gaur said. Special Director General (law and order) Prashant Kumar said earlier that the SIT would be headed by the Meerut commissioner while the inspector general of Meerut and the deputy inspector general of Moradabad would be its members.
Lawyers across Uttar Pradesh boycotted court work on Wednesday in protest against the Hapur incident.
Police had allegedly lathi-charged lawyers on Tuesday when they were protesting against the registration of a case against a woman advocate and her father around a week ago. The case was registered following a confrontation between the woman lawyer and police when she was going to Ghaziabad in her car.
On Wednesday, police had registered an FIR against 17 lawyers and over 250 unidentified people at City police station in Hapur over the Tuesday’s protest by some advocates at Tehsil Crossing. Additional SP (Hapur) Mukesh Mishra said the FIR has been registered for creating ruckus, causing traffic jam and violating prohibitory orders. —PTI