A group of advocates staged a protest in front of the Ramanagara DC’s office on Tuesday demanding the suspension of Sub Inspector Tanveer Hussain of Ijoor station over an FIR filed against 40 advocates.
Earlier, the police had arrested advocate Chand Pasha following a complaint for an allegedly derogatory post targeting a judge in Varanasi, which led to a clash between two groups of advocates last week.
While Chand Pasha was arrested, the police also filed an FIR against a group of 40 advocates based on a counter-complaint.
The group of advocates staged a protest demanding quashing of the FIR, and also suspension of PSI Tanveer Hussain. The protesters laid siege to the DC’s office. They accused the district administration of buckling under pressure from Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and MLA H.A. Iqbal Hussain.
The protest was supported by opposition leaders former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Leader of Opposition in Assembly R. Ashok. The issue also led to a war of words in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
‘BJP politicising protest’
On the other hand, Mr. Shivakumar on Tuesday said the State government was ready to address the striking lawyers’ issues if they “kept politics aside and came to the discussion table.”
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Shivakumar said: “The lawyers’ strike is politically motivated. The BJP is trying to capitalise on it for political gains. We are ready to resolve their issues within the legal framework if they come to the discussion table leaving aside politics.”
Meanwhile, in the Legislative Assembly, the BJP and the JD(S) members staged a dharna in the well of the House demanding the suspension of the Sub Inspector and the exile of the accused lawyer from the district.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Mr. Ashok alleged that the accused lawyer, who is also a members of the SDPI, had abused the judge in his Facebook post. He alleged that the Inspector had got a counter complaint filed from Pasha and based on it an FIR had been filed against about 40 lawyers though it was Pasha who barged into their working space.
However, replying to the issue, Home Minister G. Parameshwara explained that action had been taken against Pasha by arresting him earlier. He defended the SI by saying that he had gone by rules.
Pointing out that that the government had asked the DySP of neighbouring Channapatna to conduct an inquiry into the issue, he said based on the findings a decision on action against the SI would be made, which made opposition livid who protested in the well of the House.
