District Bar Association, police on the warpath in Gurdaspur

The Gurdaspur District Bar Association (DBA) and the local police are on the warpath with lawyers not approving the decision of the police to transfer Dinanagar SHO Amritpal Singh to the Police Lines. Instead, they have demanded an FIR to be registered against him and also want him to be placed under suspension.

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Apart from shifting the SHO, SSP Aditya has also initiated a departmental inquiry against him.

However, the DBA, which went on an indefinite strike today against the action of the SHO of arresting Pawan Kumar from the chamber of lawyer Dilbagh Singh Saini, a few days ago, were not satisfied. Pawan Kumar is a disabled ex-Army man. The SHO, at that time, had claimed that he had arrested Pawan Kumar because there was an FIR registered against him and that he was on the wanted list of the police.

The lawyers said that shifting an officer to the Police Lines “is no punishment”.

DBA president Raj Paul Singh said they were very clear that they want an FIR against him apart from placing him under suspension.

The SHO’s action had invited the ire of the lawyers’ fraternity and consequently all of them came on a joint platform to confront this action of the cops. Today, lawyers from Batala subdivision said they will also be joining the strike tomorrow.

Dilbagh Singh Saini had also claimed that the SHO had spoken in a threatening tone and said “a case should also be registered against you advocates for sheltering criminals in their chambers”.

A delegation led by Raj Paul Singh met SSP Aditya at the District Police Office (DPO) today. A senior advocate claimed “transfer and departmental inquiry” were not a punishment “while an FIR and suspension was the real punishment”.

Raj Paul Singh said he added that he had convened a meeting of the DBA tomorrow to sort out the issue.