NDMC official beaten in court

Alleges attack by lawyers to deter him from probing licence fee defaulters

A New Delhi Municipal Council official was allegedly assaulted by a group of lawyers inside Karkardooma Courts Complex premises on Tuesday, an action he claimed was to deter him from probing cases against licence fee defaulters.

Meanwhile, a woman lawyer also submitted a complaint that the official assaulted her after he misbehaved with her and passed some remarks. By 10 p.m. on Tuesday the police was in the process of the registration of two FIRs based on these cross-complaints

Alok Bhatnagar, Head Assistant (Estate Department), claimed that the attack was instigated by lawyer-journalist Piyush Jain and his lawyer S.K. Jain after they and a group of other lawyers “wrongly accused Mr. Bhatnagar of molesting a woman”.

Mr. Bhatnagar and the Jains were in the court for the hearing in a defamation case even as he blamed Mr. Piyush Jain for “making false allegations against him” through his writings in a local vernacular daily”.

Woman’s complaint

“A woman advocate unknown to me started shouting that I have misbehaved with her. I refuted the allegations but she stopped me and soon the two accused mentioned in my complaint arrived there with a bunch of other lawyers. Together they beat me up in Court Room Number 50,” Mr. Bhatnagar told

The Hindu .

Mr. Bhatnagar alleged that he was probing cases against many prominent five star hotels in the NDMC area and a flower kiosk near Palika Bazar which Mr. Piyush Jain was associated with. He also pointed out that the attack was carried out on the first anniversary of the murder of another NDMC official M.M. Khan, who was allegedly murdered by a hotelier, whose case he was probing,

A senior police officer said that a case under IPC Sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) has been made out against Mr. Piyush Jain and Mr. S.K. Jain and they were in the process of registering the case. Similarly, a case of IPC Sections 323 (assault) and 509 (outraging the modesty of a woman) was made out on the basis of the counter complaint.

The officer added that efforts are on to identify the other accused. Both Mr. Bhatnagar and Mr. Piyush Jain claimed to have filed defamation cases against each other.

Jain denies attack

Meanwhile, speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Piyush Jain initially said he had nothing to do with the attack. He later questioned why the charges pertaining to assault on a public servant were slapped when the defamations were issued against a person and NDMC was not even a party to it.

Meanwhile, another NDMC official said both the advocates were contesting the Nathia Devi case (regarding the flower kiosk as mentioned by Mr. Bhatnagar) in which, an MHA report has indicated certain NDMC officials were blatantly regularising licences illegally.