Striking lawyers manhandle judge in UP

A judge was allegedly abused and manhandled by a group of lawyers for continuing with work during their strike inside the court premises in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district, about 30 kilometres from here, on Friday.

According to the police sources here, the lawyers who halted work to express solidarity with their fraternity in Delhi's Tees Hazari court, allegedly held Judge Sandeep Jain, who headed the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal in Barabanki, by the collar and also abused him.

The judge later lodged a complaint with the police in this regard. In his complaint he said that a group of around 40-50 lawyers barged into his chamber while he was dictating some order and manhandled him and assaulted his staff and the gunner.

The lawyers were furious with the Judge for working when they had given a call for strike.

Sources said that the lawyers also tried to snatch the carbine of the Judge's gunner but could not succeed.

Police officials said in Barabanki that a case was registered against unidentified lawyers and it was being investigated. ''We are trying to find out if there was any CCTV footage so that we can identify the lawyers, who had barged into the chamber of the judge,'' said a senior police official.

Lawyers at various district courts across the state had extended support to the Delhi lawyers, who had recently clashed with the cops at Tees Hazari court in the national capital.