Lawyers and baton-wielding police personnel came to blows in a courtroom in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday after the judge called the force in to remove a group of protesting lawyers raising slogans against him over a disagreement.
Some of the lawyers claimed they suffered injuries as police personnel used batons on them, and police officials alleged that agitating advocates set a local police outpost on fire.
The ruckus broke out around 11 am in the district and sessions court complex located in the Raj Nagar area following a heated altercation between an advocate and the judge over the hearing of an anticipatory bail case.
Dramatic scenes of the clash in the courtroom surfaced on social media. In one such clip, some police personnel were seen brandishing batons, while one even wielded a wooden chair, gesturing as if to strike the lawyers.
Ghaziabad police commissioner Ajay Kumar Mishra told PTI that a group of advocates "tried to exert pressure" on the district judge during the hearing of a bail application and "attempted to assault" him.
Requesting anonymity, a lawyer said that a group of advocates had demanded that district and sessions judge Anil Kumar should hear the case of anticipatory bail on priority, which he denied and stated that the case would be entertained as per the listing.
"On this, the group of advocates raised slogans against the district judge. The matter took an ugly turn when court proceedings were interrupted and the judge called the police in. Cops reached the courtroom and charged lathis due to which over a dozen lawyers suffered injuries," he claimed.
Meanwhile, former district bar president Nahar Singh Yadav sent a complaint of the incident to the Allahabad high court chief justice.
He alleged that advocates Jitendra Singh and Abhishek Yadav, who reached the court to oppose the anticipatory bail plea, had urged the district judge to hear the arguments on priority or transfer the case as the courtroom was crowded.
Yadav claimed that the district judge lost his temper and started abusing the lawyers.
He added that the judge then called the police force, and personnel headed by DCP (City zone) Rajesh Kumar Singh and ACP (Kavinagar) Abhishek Srivastava came in and resorted to baton charge which left over a dozen advocates injured.
He also demanded that the CCTV footage of the courtroom should be preserved. The complaint has been signed by eight advocates.
Police commissioner Mishra said that advocates Nahar Singh Yadav (ex-Bar association president and Samajwadi Party leader), Abhishek Yadav, Aurangzeb Khan and Bilal Ahmed, along with their fellow advocates, tried to exert pressure on the district judge during the hearing and attempted an assault.
"The police intervened appropriately and dispersed them by using mild force. Meanwhile, a group of agitating advocates set ablaze a police chowki," he added.
Earlier, purported video clips of the incident surfaced on social media showing a large number of police personnel and lawyers in a confrontation in the courtroom.
A lawyer was also seen with a head wound in a purported photo.
