The clash between Delhi police and Tis Hazari court lawyers on November 2 took an ugly turn after the lawyers went on the rampage at the court premises and attacked the policeman by entering the police station following a fight that broke out between lawyers and policemen near the premises of Tis Hazari court.
Today, after videos depicting the assault on DCP Monika Bharadwaj on November 2 went viral on social media, Additional DCP (North) Harinder Singh, who was also one of the top cops manhandled in the clash spoke to Times Now on Friday and narrated the ordeal which he and his colleagues went through.
The CCTV footages and mobile videos had revealed that DCP (North) Monika Bhardwaj, Additional DCP (North) Harinder Singh and ACP Civil Lines Ram Meher Singh were thrashed by a mob on November 2.
It is notable here that Singh was transferred from his post after the November 2 incident. Speaking to Times Now, he has revealed that the lawyers, when they attacked the Tis Hazari police station, they had poured patrol near the lock-up and had tried to set it ablaze.
“Their purpose was to break the lock-up but they couldn’t do it. We doused the fire with water brought in buckets from inside. But because of an explosion in the tank (of a vehicle), fire and smoke filled the lock-up,” the police official said.
He confirmed that had the police not acted on time and evacuated the prisoners from the lock-up, many of them could have died. “Around 100 prisoners were there including women. If they were not rescued, they could have died,” Singh said.
Singh said the lawyers wanted to take revenge for their colleague after the alleged fight between policemen and a lawyer over a parking issue. “We intervened and didn’t allow lawyers to come inside. We closed the lockup from inside so that not only jawans but also prisoners, scheduled to be presented before the court, were not exposed to risk. When lawyers couldn’t get in, they wanted to break lockup by igniting a fire,” Singh was quoted as saying by ANI.
During the clashes at the Tis Hazari station, several vehicles were set on fire by the lawyers. Videos of a group of lawyers rushing inside the station and beating up policemen have been doing rounds on social media. The lawyers have been saying that the police had brutalised one of them after the parking tussle and had dragged him inside the lock-up.
As a fallout of the clash that ensued on Saturday, more than 150 hardened criminals could have been out on the streets. A huge disaster had been averted by the Delhi policemen despite being roughed up by the lawyers at the Tis Hazari court complex as the alertness of Delhi police officials made sure that these dangerous criminals did not escape from their custody.
Reportedly, in the violent clashes which erupted between police and lawyers at Tis Hazari Courts complex, the police were outnumbered and cornered by the lawyers who went on a rampage kicking and throwing tables and chairs to break the lock-up gate. A bike was also set ablaze by the frenzied lawyers.
A fight started over the issue of parking at Tis Hazari court flared into a battle between lawyers and policemen on November 2, with lawyers reportedly taking law into their own hands and beating up policemen. In response, the policemen also unleashed violence against the lawyers injuring two of them.
