Thousands of Delhi police personnel on Tuesday laid siege to the force’s headquarters for 11 hours and staged a virtual revolt, sparked by two attacks on colleagues. They called off the stir following multiple appeals, including from their chief.
The protests, in which families of the personnel also took to the streets, were withdrawn in the night after an assurance by senior officers that their grievances would be addressed.
There were two attacks on police personnel — one on Monday outside the Saket district court and the other on Saturday in the Tis Hazari Courts Complex after a parking dispute between an on-duty policeman and a lawyer, which led to at least 20 security personnel and several advocates being injured.
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The protesters demanded that the suspension and transfer of police officers ordered by the High Court following the clash be revoked.
ASIs Pawan Kumar and Kanta Prasad were suspended and Additional Deputy Commissioner Harender Singh and Special Commissioner Sanjay Singh were transferred.
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They also demanded that cases be registered against the lawyers based on the complaints by the injured officers, and that strict action be taken.
‘Challenge order’
The protesters demanded that the High Court’s order that no severe action against lawyers should be taken over the Tis Hazari incident, be challenged in the Supreme Court. “Our police officer was thrashed mercilessly by lawyers outside the Saket court and not even a case was registered. What are we here for? To get beaten?” said a protester, who identified himself as constable Ravi.
As the agitation continued, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla said the Centre was closely monitoring the situation. The Home Ministry also received a report from the Delhi police on the protests.
Former president of the Delhi Bar Association Sanjeev Nasiar termed the protest a “mutiny” and said the police personnel must be punished for “violation of service rules”.
In a resolution, the Central IPS Association said, “The courts should treat all parties equitably and grant justice.”
It said all lawyers who were part of the violence should be identified and “befitting legal action, including cancellation of their licence, should be initiated”.
With the protesters sticking to their guns, several officers, including Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, tried to pacify them.
In a parallel development, two FIRs were registered by the Saket police — one based on a complaint of the officer who was thrashed and another on a complaint by a cab driver allegedly beaten by lawyers.
During the day, Joint Commissioners of Police Devesh Srivastava and Rajesh Khurana addressed the crowd, asking the police personnel to return to duty or home and senior officials had taken note of their demands but the protesters said, “We’ll not move till our demands are accepted.”
Late in the evening Special CP Satish Golcha announced that all the injured officials will be given ex gratia of ₹25,000 and that all the demands submitted by them are being looked into.
Mr. Patnaik, in a statement, later said that he understood the pain of the officials and was taking their grievances to the right platform. “Delhi police is known for their good deeds and we should maintain the image,” he said, urging everyone to return to work.
(With PTI inputs)