Lawyers protest against revenue officials for ‘thrashing’ colleague

Our Correspondent

Jammu, February 6

Lawyers today held a protest in the High Court complex here against the revenue officials of the Subdivision Magistrate (SDM), North, for allegedly thrashing and manhandling a lawyer for refusing to “pay bribe”.

The lawyers also lodged a complaint at the Janipura police station seeking action against the culprit revenue officials.

Advocate Azhar Usman Khan alleged that he was thrashed and put into illegal confinement by the revenue officials at the office of SDM (North) who happens to be the sub-registrar.

“My documents were pending at the SDM (North) office, which was submitted for registration since December 30, 2019 and despite several visits, the officials failed to clear my documents as they were looking for bribe,” Khan alleged.

“Today at around 10:30 am when I approached the SDM (North) office for the collection of my documents, they again failed to clear them and when I asked them to return my documents, they thrashed, manhandled and kept me hostage for half an hour in a room. I was later rescued by the police, when I contacted Jammu Bar president,” Khan said.

“We have filed a complaint at the Janipura police station against eight persons (revenue officials) and demanded strict action for demanding bribe,” he said. The police said they had received a complaint from the lawyers, but no FIR had been registered as yet.