Cop-Lawyer Faceoff: Republic accesses details of probe

What the country has witnessed in the last few days in terms of the faceoff between the lawyers and police in the national capital is unprecedented, to say the least. The fight started over a parking dispute on Saturday and later snowballed into a massive tussle with both sides refusing to back off. While police personnel hit the streets on Tuesday demanding concrete actions and protection, the lawyers refused to budge with district courts in a complete lockdown on Wednesday. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pressed upon a thorough investigation to bring an end to this impasse. So how far has the investigation by Delhi Police reached?

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An "outsider role" in the incident?

Top sources in the Delhi Police have revealed that there is more to what meets the eye as far as the Tis Hazari court incident is concerned. They are not ruling out at the “outsider role” in spoiling the law and order situation.  After carrying out the probe for four days, sources in Delhi Police say that they suspect that false information was spread at Tis Hazari that police had attacked a lawyer inside the lockup and he has been badly beaten up.

This false information resulted in chaos inside the court. The police also noted that since the Delhi Bar Association election was to take place on 5th November, several lawyers had come to the campaign. Those who were contesting the elections had also brought in "outsiders". As soon as the word spread that a particular lawyer had been "dragged" and "beaten up", angry lawyers then attacked the police post and lockup. CCTV footage accessed by Republic TV shows that no lawyer was assaulted by the police when he entered the lock-up.

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Delhi Police sources say so far no statement of lawyers has been recorded as yet. However, Republic TV has learned that the police have identified three lawyers including a woman lawyer who indulged in the violence. The investigating team is also taking help of constables (with 20 odd years of experience who regularly go to Tihar Jail with undertrials) to identify the instigators.

Those privies to the details of the investigation say that a few lawyers who indulged in violence are not practising at Tis Hazari. The injured policemen have told SIT officials that the attack on them was planned and many had to run for cover to save themselves. The policeman who opened fire said that it was an act of self-defense and that he was trying to save his senior. He also told the investigating team that he fired shots to prevent lawyers from entering the lockup where undertrials were kept.

It remains to be seen whether the 5-day faceoff will finally come to an end or the impasse would continue.

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