Uttar Pradesh: 8 lawyers suspended for attack on judge

Tandon had lodged two FIRs against a group of lawyers, including members and office-bearers of the Unnao Bar association, for allegedly attacking him twice last week.

Unnao: The Unnao Bar Association has suspended the membership of eight lawyers on the directives of the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh that is probing the alleged attack on additional district judge Prahlad Tandon.

Tandon had lodged two FIRs against a group of lawyers, including members and office-bearers of the Unnao Bar association, for allegedly attacking him twice last week.

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The Unnao Bar Association has issued a show cause notice to the lawyers involved in the incident while the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh has set up a two-member committee, comprising Prashant Singh Atal and Ajay Yadav to probe the incident.

Unnao Bar Association president Ram Shankar Yadav is named in both the cases lodged at the City Kotwali police station.

Apart from him, former Unnao Bar Council presidents, Satish Shukla and Girish Mishra, and former government counsel Vinod Pathak, are among those named in the FIRs.

Superintendent of Police, Sureshrao A Kulkarni, said no one had been arrested so far but the police had started investigating the case and provided additional security to judge Prahlad Tandon.

The police said the first FIR was lodged against Ram Shankar Yadav, advocate Harsingh Bahadur and an unidentified lawyer for allegedly abusing the judge in a courtroom on March 23.

According to the complainant, the three entered his court room and started abusing him in front of the court staff after he rejected the bail application of a person.

Tandon, who is a special judge in a POCSO court, alleged that Ram Shankar Yadav and 150-200 unidentified advocates raised slogans against him, threw furniture and abused him.

The complainant told the police that the lawyers climbed on the dais where he was sitting, and when he tried to go to his chamber, they surrounded him, pushed him around and slapped him. They also snatched his cell phone.

According to the police, the accused chased Tandon to an adjoining gallery and damaged windows in the chambers of the judge and his stenographer.

The SP said the matter was referred to a grievance committee.

The complainant and the members of the Bar appeared before the committee but the matter could not be resolved. Circle Officer Gaurav Tripathi said Tandon’s statement had been recorded and the investigators were collecting evidence at present.