Police assault on lawyers of Allahabad: PIL filed:High Court directs officials to file affidavit
Hearing a PIL demanding lodging of an FIR against the police officials involved in ‘assaulting’ lawyers in Prayagraj on February 4, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday directed the Prayagraj’s divisional commissioner, Mela Adhikari, police commissioner, district magistrate, and deputy commissioner of police (traffic) to file their affidavit in response to this petition.
While hearing the PIL filed by the High Court Bar Association (HCBA), Allahabad, a division bench comprising Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Prashant Kumar directed to put up this case on February 14 for the next hearing.
Earlier, while hearing the mention being made by senior advocate and Bar President Anil Tiwari of the matter, this division bench asked him to bring on record all the incidents of police brutality against lawyers in the city of Prayagraj.
It may be noted that the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) wrote a letter to the Chief Justice highlighting that the police had prevented the lawyers from reaching the High Court and blocked the road for some VIP movement on February 4, 2025. It was stated that the police had assaulted the lawyers upon the latter asking for access to the road.
The Chief Justice directed that the letter be converted into a criminal Public Interest Litigation and was listed before the aforesaid bench.
While mentioning the PIL, Tiwari brought the court’s attention to two other instances where, while going to the Kumbh Mela Area, lawyers were allegedly beaten by the police in front of their wives.
It was stated before the court that in one such instance, even though the lawyer had a valid pass to enter the Kumbh Area, his pass was allegedly snatched and torn by the police officer present at the scenes. It was submitted that one lawyer was beaten. The lawyer fraternity has been very upset with this kind of rogue police behavior.
The court asked the senior counsel to provide the videos of the instances along with the affidavit. When the senior counsel said that the video link would be circulated amongst the lawyers, the court asked the counsel not to circulate the videos but rather provide them to the court.
