law Minister Arun Sahoo on Thursday announced that the Odisha Human Rights Protection Cell (OHRPC) would probe into the alleged brutal attack by police on a lawyer of Bhubaneswar.
He further announced that the Government would bear the treatment expenses of the injured lawyer.
However, the Bhubaneswar Bar Association rejected the Government’s decision for a probe by HRPC and, instead, demanded a judicial probe into the incident.
“Neither we will accept the Government’s decision to hand over the investigation to the HRPC nor will we accept any further inquiry by the Commissionerate police. Only a judicial probe will unearth the truth. We urge the Government to order a judicial probe into the matter,” said Bar Association general secretary Jayanta Kumar Mishra.
Nihar Ranjan Sethi, a member of the Bhubaneswar Bar Association, was allegedly beaten up by policemen late on Wednesday night while he was on his way home near Ravi Talkies Square. He complained of serious injuries inflicted by the police on his scrotum and other parts of the body. He even said one of his testicles had to be removed by doctors in a private nursing home where he is still undergoing treatment.
Protesting the alleged police inaction in the matter, Bhubaneswar lawyers had blocked road and torched a police jeep on Monday.
However, the Commissionerate police on Tuesday released CCTV footages to establish that the concerned lawyer had alcoholic drinks in a city bar and met with an accident shortly thereafter. The police said Sethi was found lying unconscious on the highway stretch between Vani Vihar Square and Rasulgarh Square the same night and after getting a call from a person, the Police Control Room dispatched two PCR vans to rescue Sethi and he was shifted to the Capital Hospital, where he was released after being provided first aid.
However, the All Odisha lawyers’ Association on Wednesday demanded an independent probe into the alleged police attack on Sethi and adequate compensation to him. It demanded a probe to be conducted by a sitting judge of the Odisha High Court or a High Court-monitored CBI probe or an inquiry by Human Rights Commission into the issue.
Members of the Odisha High Court Bar Association, expressing solidarity with the Bhubaneswar lawyers, were on a cease-work stir on Wednesday.