The case of alleged assault on a lawyer of Bhubaneswar by the city police on July 17, which took an ugly turn on Monday with the lawyers taking to the streets in protest and setting a police jeep on fire, got a new twist with the Commissionerate Police on Tuesday producing video footage and wireless transcripts of the fateful day of the lawyers’ movement.
At a Press conference here, Commissioner of Police RP Sharma, describing the chain of sequences, showed the video footage of the lawyer Nihar Ranjan Sethi visiting Hotel Solan Inn at Janpath under the Kharavel Nagar police Station at around 7.30 pm on July 17. Around 11.30 pm. the lawyer appeared at the hotel lobby in a highly intoxicated state, and after some discussion which with the hotel staff paid the bill and left for home at Mahtab Road under the Airfield police station.
But at around 2.30 am, the Police Control Room (PCR) received a call from a resident of VSS Nagar that a motorcyclist had met with an accident on the Vani Vihar-Rasulgarh road near the railway over-bridge and was lying unconscious.
The Commissioner, while producing the wireless transcripts between the Police Control Room and the nearest PCR van in the vicinity, said two PCRS of the Saheed Nagar PS rushed to the spot. They found a man lying on the road with the front of the motorcycle badly damaged. When the accident victim did not agree to be shifted by the PCR van to hospital, the police tried to contact 108 Ambulance service but was told that no ambulance was available at that time.
So, without having any option the PCR van took the lawyer to the Capital Hospital and got him admitted at around 3.30 pm, which has been recorded by the Capital Hospital CCTV camera. When the lawyer was checked by the doctor on duty, he did not complain of any pain in his private parts and the video footage shows that he was moving around the hospital without any assistance.
Around 4.35 pm, the lawyer was seen leaving for his home by an auto-rickshaw. On July 19, he got admitted to a private clinic, Sanjeevani, the Commissioner said.
Elaborating further, he said the police have formed a Special Investigating Team (SIT), which is probing why the lawyer instead of going home went towards Rasulgarh Square. Besides, the police have already questioned the VSS Nagar caller, the doctors and security staff of the Capital Hospital and the private clinic, and the auto-rickshaw driver.
The personnel of the PCR vans would be interrogated and the truth behind the incident would be unravelled without any prejudice, and stringent action would be taken against anyone found guilty, Dr Sharma said. He also informed that CDs of the video footage and the wireless transcripts have been given to the Bhubaneswar Bar Association.
Meanwhile, supporting the cause of the Bhubaneswar Bar Association, the Odisha High Court Bar Association here on Tuesday unanimously decided to abstain from court duties for two days from Wednesday. The other bar associations of Cuttack also decided to stay away from courts on Wednesday.
“The decision of the general body has been forwarded to the High Court Registry, and we will take further course of action after watching the developments on Thursday morning,” said HC Bar Association general secretary Bidyadhar Pradhan.
The lawyers of Bhubaneswar are on agitation for last five days demanding arrest of the policemen who allegedly beat up a colleague mercilessly in Bhubaneswar last week.
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