CHANDIGARH: About 400 lawyers from all over Punjab staged a demonstration near the Civil Secretariat here on Nov.5 to demand immediate release of an advocate Jagwinder Singh whose whereabouts are not known since his alleged arrest on September 25 at Kapurthala.
A strong police force was deployed that morning to prevent the lawyers from organizing any action. The road leading from High Court to the Civil Secretariat was barricaded at two places to block any attempt to march the building.
Earlier they held a rally at the High Court which was addressed by several representatives of Bar associations including the Chairman Punjab Human Rights Organization Ajit Singh Bains. He criticized the Punjab government for its failure to trace the missing lawyer and said the police was trying to hush up the matter. The police action was highly condemnable he added.
After the rally the lawyers marched to the Secretariat to submit a memorandum to Chief Minister Beant Singh but were intercepted at the barricades by police who ordered them to tum back. The lawyers vehemently resisted the police pressure and insisted on proceeding.
Since the Chief Minister was not in his office the lawyers demanded that the chief secretary accept their memorandum.
The police yielded to their demand but on the arrival of the chief secretary the protesting lawyers refused to submit the memorandum unless the first barricade was removed. Finally the police had to remove it and allow them to come to the second barricade where the chief secretary accepted the memorandum and assured the lawyers that their demand would be taken up at a higher level in the process he had to face the wrath of agitated lawyers
The memorandum submitted by the District Bar Association Kapurthala alleged that the police had picked up the advocate on September 25 from his residence at Kapurthala; since then he had neither been released nor produced before any court. A case was also registered al the city police station in this connection it added. The memorandum demanded a CBI enquiry into the incident as the polices role in the entire case was suspicious. It also demanded the arrest of the SSP DSP and SHO City Police Station.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 20, 1992
