High Court fracas: Finally, police file FIR

About a week after a group of unruly lawyers thrashed a Head Constable of the UT Police outside the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Chandigarh Police on Monday registered an FIR against the former additional advocate general of Punjab, Rupinder Singh Khosla, and others.

The FIR was registered after SP Arun Kampni submitted the inquiry report. Khosla and other lawyers, who will be identified from the CCTV footage, have been booked on charges of assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty and causing damage to public property.

The FIR was lodged on the complaint of Head Constable Ramesh Chand. "We have registered a case. The accused, apart from Rupinder Khosla, will be identified, and we will take them into custody," said a senior police officer.

The accused have been booked under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 341 (wrongful restraint) of the IPC read with Section 3 (causing damage to public property) of the Destruction of Public Property.

The incident had happened on February 26 when advocate Rupinder Khosla was stopped by Head Constable Ramesh Chand as he did not have a smart card to enter the court premises. As the constable stopped him, Khosla started to abuse him. Following constant abuses by the former additional advocate general and ex-president of the High Court Bar Association, the Head Constable slapped him.

On this, the advocates who were standing near by started to thrash the Head Constable. His uniform was torn and his turban was also removed. It has still not been located by the police. As the Head Constable went to the security room, the advocates followed him. He was beaten up and the security room was ransacked. He was then dragged outside by which time a team from Police Station, Sector 3, along with DSP (Central) Ashish Kapoor came and rescued him.

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