Lawyers clashed with the police, indulging in arson and stone-pelting on the second consecutive day of their agitation on Thursday resulting in injuries to both the sides.

The lawyers had announced an indefinite strike after clashes broke out between police and lawyers on Wednesday.

They took out a procession at the collectorate junction and Janpath near the Assembly demanding suspension of police officers responsible for the lathicharge.
Protesters torched a police vehicle and damaged about a dozen passing through the Banipark area, police said.

Additional police commissioner Biju G Joseph said the Banipark area where the sessions and district court buildings are located, a group of lawyers torched a police van and set a police check post on fire in the court premises in the morning.

The police used baton and teargas shells to disperse the lawyers who pelted stones on them, Joseph said.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Mahendra Singh and at least 20 other policemen were injured in stone-pelting, he added. Lawyers claimed that about 30 of them suffered injuries.

 Meanwhile, chief minister Ashok Gehlot appealed for peace and said lawyers’ demands will be looked into.

The issue also figured in the assembly where opposition members demanded a judicial probe into the lathicharge and staged a walkout in support of the demands of lawyers.
Minister of state for home Virendra Beniwal said three cases have been registered in various police stations against the lawyers for indulging in vandalism and violence.

The lawyers are demanding residential plots on subsidised rates, allowance of Rs 2,000 per month for those with less than five years of experience, allocation of Rs 10 crore to the Rajasthan Lawyers’ Welfare Board and the constitution of a Lawyers’ Welfare Act.