Two Delhi Police constables were suspended Friday for using excessive force against a group of lawyers who wanted to lodge a complaint against an engineer of the city’s civic body, police said.
Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said that the constables, Ankit and Manoj, were suspended in view of Thursday clash between police team and a group of lawyers that ensued after police baton charged the lawyers at Anand Vihar police station in east Delhi.
After the suspension, Karkardooma lawyers, who staged a protest Friday against police action, withdrew their strike call.
“A committee, including a deputy commissioner of police and senior lawyers, has been constituted to examine the allegations and counter-allegations of both groups and the inquiry into the incident is pending,” said Bhagat.
Two lawyers and eight policemen were injured the Thursday clash.
Advocate Sujit Kumar Singh, who works at Karkardooma district court, had gone to the Anand Vihar police station around 3 p.m. Thursday along with his colleagues to lodge a case against Nishan Singh, a junior engineer with Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
The engineer and his team had earlier gone for a demolition drive in Inderpuri area where Singh’s house is located. Singh opposed their move after he was told a portion of his house will be demolished.
The MCD team then came to the police station to lodge a complaint against Singh.
Reaching the police station, Singh found the engineer there. He and his colleagues then allegedly attacked him and tore some legal documents. After which, police baton charged the advocates, injuring two of them, a police officer said.
After the incident, over 400 advocates staged a protest over “police atrocity” at Karkardooma court. They broke window panes, CCTV cameras and doors at the court premises.
When police tried to stop them they were attacked. Eight policemen were injured. A head constable, who was critically injured, was admitted to the Guru Teg Bahadur hospital.