Police file FIR against Ghaziabad lawyers

Ghaziabad : Police here in Uttar Pradesh on Friday filed a FIR against striking lawyers for assaulting them even as a strike by advocates crippled the courts.

The police registered the First Information Report lodged by Sub-Inspector Vipin Malik, who was thrashed by the lawyers in the court compound on Thursday.

The FIR, which includes charges of attempt to murder, have been registered against 300 to 350 unidentified lawyers, Kavi Nagar police station SHO Pradeep Kumar Tripathi said.

The owner of an eatery, Anil Mishra, also filed a complaint against a lawyer leader, D.C. Gautam, accusing him and three accomplices of attacking him.

Gautam in turn filed a FIR against four police constables.

In the meantime, two complaints have been filed by journalists who claimed they were beaten and taken hostage and their cameras were broken by the lawyers.

The journalists filed the complaint to Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Krishna.

The journalists said they came under attack when they came to the court complex to cover the police-lawyer clash. They said the journalists virtually wanted to kill them but they were saved by the police personnel.

Ghaziabar Bar Association President Anil Pandit said the lawyers would extend their strike to western Uttar Pradesh districts.