Even as two persons, including a policeman, were arrested for their alleged involvement in last month’s police assault on an advocate, the lawyers of Cuttack have refused to concede and have, instead, threatened to continue their month-long strike more vigorously.
Lawyers across the State have been agitating since August 29 demanding arrest of the policemen, who assaulted a lawyer. For the second day on Wednesday, all Government offices located in the periphery of the High Court here were locked by lawyers, who picketed in front of these offices restraining the employees from entering into their office premises. Members of public also had a horrendous experience as the lawyers also sealed the roads leading to banks and treasury of the locality.
“Our boycott of courts and picketing in front of the Government offices shall continue till Friday, the day on which we will decide about our next course of action,” said Orissa High Court Bar Association president Srikant Naik.
The lawyers have, however, put off their plan to gherao the Naveen Niwas at Bhubaneswar on Thursday since the Chief Minister is away in Chennai. On the other hand, the Odisha Sepoy, Constable and Havildar Confederation, the largest police body of the State, on Wednesday reacted for the first time ever since the lawyers-police faceoff started last month. The executi ve members of the confederation urged the lawyers not to precipitate the matter further and refrain from their demands of arrest of the policemen in connection with the assault on the advocate last month.
“We remained calm and composed over all these days as we belong to a disciplined organisation. But if the lawyers continue to build up unnecessary pressure on the Government for arrest of policemen, our confederation too will come forward to give necessary protection to our innocent colleagues. If required, we may also go on strike,” said confederation president Santosh Satpathy.