UP lawyers' protest: Hapur ASP among three police personnel shunted out of district

We have called a meeting on Saturday to decide the future course of action, Hapur Bar Association Secretary Narendra Sharma told PTI.Meanwhile, an emergency meeting of the general body of the Lucknow Bar Association was held on Friday under the chairmanship of President Suresh Pandey and General Secretary Kuldeep Narayan Mishra, in which it was decided to support the ongoing strike by their colleagues in Hapur.

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Friday shunted out three officials, including Hapur's additional superintendent of police, hours after the state's bar council called off a statewide lawyers' strike against the alleged lathi-charge on advocates in the district in August.

The Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh late on Thursday called off the statewide strike by lawyers following talks with the chief secretary.

Lawyers in Uttar Pradesh had been striking since August 30 over the alleged police lathi-charge in Hapur the day before.

''Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mukesh Chandra Verma, Circle Officer (City) Ashok Kumar Sisodhiya and Hapur Nagar SHO Satendra Prakash Singh have been transferred out of the district,'' said Superintendent of Police (Hapur) Abhishek Verma.

''The transfer has been ordered by the government following talks with the lawyers' groups,'' he added.

The ASP has been transferred to Bareilly and Sisodhiya to Saharanpur, according to information provided by the Police Headquarters in Lucknow.

Rajkumar has been appointed as the new Hapur ASP and Jitendra Kumar Verma the new circle officer.

Even as lawyers across the state resumed work on Friday, advocates in Hapur, who were demanding the transfer of senior police officials, continued to abstain.

''The protest will continue. We have called a meeting on Saturday to decide the future course of action,'' Hapur Bar Association Secretary Narendra Sharma told PTI.

Meanwhile, an emergency meeting of the general body of the Lucknow Bar Association was held on Friday under the chairmanship of President Suresh Pandey and General Secretary Kuldeep Narayan Mishra, in which it was decided to support the ongoing strike by their colleagues in Hapur. Mishra told PTI that the association condemned the police action in Hapur and refused to accept the state bar council's decision to call off the strike. Advocates of the Lucknow Bar Association will reach Hapur on Saturday and stay away from judicial work, he added.

According to reports, lawyers from Ballia also passed a resolution to abstain from judicial work on Friday and Saturday. The lawyers expressed solidarity with their colleagues in Hapur and said ''it is not justified for the Bar Council (of Uttar Pradesh) to end the strike in such a situation''.

Tribhuvan Nath Yadav, an advocates' leader, said lawyers of the Criminal and Revenue Bar Organisation and the Civil Bar Association have unanimously passed a resolution in a joint meeting to abstain from judicial work for two days. The advocates alleged that the state's bar council chairman took a unilateral decision in favour of the government and said it was an injustice to the aggrieved lawyers of Hapur.

The lawyers' strike began after they were allegedly lathi-charged on August 29 in Hapur during a protest against the registration of a case against a woman advocate and her father around a week before over a confrontation she had with the police when she was on her way to Ghaziabad in her car.