Scores of Delhi Police officers including recently transferred Gandhi Nagar assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Manasvi Vashishta gathered outside the police headquarters on Jai Singh Road on Monday to seek a meeting with Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar over the recent face-off with lawyers in east Delhi’s Shahdara.
ACP Vashishta and Arun Kumar, the station house officer of the Shahdara police station, were transferred out after city lawyers called for an indefinite strike over the handling of an assault case of a lawyer Lalit Bansal. The lawyers, who had gone on strike last week, had alleged that the ACP and the SHO threatened advocates who had gone to the police station to seek action against the accused in the Bansal assault case. “Our demands are clear. We need to meet CP sir. There needs to be an SOP (standard operating procedure) to deal with such matters. An FIR was subsequently registered at the Shahdara police station on a complaint by advocate Amulya Ratan. The letter also sought a discussion on similar incidents involving police personnel, particularly those arising in court premises, and a future plan to address such situations.
At 11:45am, Vashishta and the other police officers were taken inside police headquarters to meet the commissioner. “There is a 30 minute video in which men wearing black coats were seen assaulting the ACP and the SHO and still, a transfer order has come for them. The confrontation between the lawyers and police stems from an altercation between two sides in which lawyer Lalit Bansal suffered a head injury on October 23.
If this happens to us, how will we fight to save the people of the city” Vashishta said amid chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Police Ekta Zindabad”. A police sub inspector, who was part of the gathering, said it was time they raised their voice. If we are wearing body cams and there is proof that we are not in the wrong, then why are we facing action?” he said.
Vashishta, who was standing with police officers gathered outside the headquarters on Monday, said they only wanted to meet the police commissioner.
