New Delhi: Around 4pm, a 30-year-old Supreme Court advocate learnt that her friend, an independent journalist, had been detained near Dilli Haat. A live location, furtively shared from his phone, led her to a wedding hall in Chhatarpur that is now a detention centre.
“I was talking to uniformed officers about the minors when a man in plainclothes came from the side and started poking his finger in my face and shouting,” she said. Supreme Court advocate Saimon Farooqui said he faced such an ordeal when he went from Chhatrasal Stadium to Mahendra Park police station after learning that detainees had been taken there. Farooqui said they wanted to request that food for those in custody, but Yadav declined to meet them and left within minutes. Fidel Tom, a lawyer detained at Dilli Haat and taken to Sanjay Colony police station, said the police personnel wanted his phone. “When I refused (to give my phone), 10 policemen, including a plainclothes officer, started beating me up,” he said. “Video footage that has surfaced depicts lawyers, including senior advocates, being physically dragged by the police,” a resolution, signed by DHCBA president and senior advocate N Hariharan and honorary secretary Vikram Singh Panwar, said. “Such high-handed and undignified treatment of members of the legal fraternity is wholly reprehensible. ” The bar association president also appeared in Supreme Court’s special Sunday hearing to highlight the problems being faced by the legal community in even reaching courts due to the restrictions imposed by police.
As lawyers across Delhi fanned out to police stations Saturday to secure the release of protesters, some were themselves pushed out, manhandled or detained. The situation escalated when lawyers waiting for the release of detainees were ushered out as DCP (northwest) Akansha Yadav arrived. Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) has condemned the detentions.