NEW DELHI: Around a hundred police personnel held a protest outside Delhi Police headquarters (PHQ) on Monday morning against the transfer of two of their colleagues following a confrontation between cops and lawyers at a police station.
The agitation followed a protest by the lawyers in Delhi courts over the Police’s alleged high-handedness towards them that ended after the transfer of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Manasvi Vashistha and Shahdara Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Arun Kumar.
Holding placards and posters, and raising slogans of unity, the protesting cops demanded that police officers be reinstated to their previous postings, while they alleged misbehaviour and threats by lawyers.
The police protest also drew criticism by the general public, with AISA president Neha Bora saying, “The Delhi Police HQ in New Delhi falls in that area where Section 163 of the BNS is in effect. Will the Delhi Police register an FIR against the Delhi Police who are angry with the Delhi Police? The signs of your crumbling system are everywhere.”
The controversy stems from a scuffle between police and lawyers in the police station in which an advocate was allegedly injured.
The personnel gathered outside Gate No. 1 of the PHQ, refusing requests from senior officers to disperse or move their grievances inside. DCP (New Delhi) Sachin Sharma attempted to persuade ACP Vashistha and other personnel assembled there to maintain discipline and not engage in “protest-like behaviour”, but the group insisted on a direct dialogue with the Commissioner.
Vashistha said the demonstration was an "organic call" and that he was joining it, while stressing, “If police stations themselves are not safe, then no place can be safe.”
The protest concluded after a meeting with the senior police officials, with Vashistha claiming that they were assured of raising their grievance at an appropriate forum.
“We held discussions with Delhi Joint CP Nupur Prasad on several demands including rollback of transfer order, and were assured that the matter will be raised before appropriate forum. We have taken a stand because it is necessary to raise our voice against the hooliganism that the police are facing and the security problems arising inside police stations,” he said.
Advocates across district courts in the national capital held a strike last month, demanding the suspension of both the police officers, alleging that the ACP had displayed his revolver, and threatened and intimidated the advocates present at the police station, where they had gone to seek lodging of an FIR over an alleged assault on a lawyer.