New Delhi: Delhi High Court Tuesday declined to take cognisance at the urging of a group of lawyers complaining about conduct of a Delhi Police senior cop, suspended for allegedly threatening lawyers.The matter was mentioned before a bench of acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma, who refused to initiate a suo motu petition and asked the lawyers to file a plea with all the available material. The court will look into the issue, the bench said.The advocates claimed that remarks like “use of AK-47” and “kale coat ke gunde” (goons in black coats) were used against lawyers by the policemen.“You are our chief. If you take suo motu cognisance of the issue, we will be assured,” one of the lawyers said.“You file a formal petition. We are a court of record, and we must have something before us. What is suo motu? We are telling you whatever material is there with you, give it in the form of a petition and submit it with the registry so that it can be brought before the court for looking into it. Do it, and we will look into it,” the bench said.The matter stems from an Oct 23 incident at Shahdara police station, where advocate Lalit Bansal allegedly suffered a serious head injury during a scuffle.It was followed by a confrontation between lawyers and police personnel at the police station, prompting district court lawyers to launch an indefinite strike, which was later called off after the police top brass on Oct 28 transferred Manasvi Vashishta, who was posted as the sub-divisional police officer in Gandhi Nagar, to the Special Police Unit for Women and Children (SPUWAC).Inspector Arun Kumar, the SHO of Shahdara police station at the time, was transferred to the security unit.The transfers came amid demands by lawyers for action against the police officers allegedly responsible for the assault on Bansal and the subsequent confrontation at the police station.Further controversy erupted Monday when Vashishta and a group of Delhi Police personnel protested outside the police headquarters against the transfers. Certain remarks were also allegedly made about the lawyers during the demonstration.Vashishtha, who allegedly led the protest, has since been suspended. The police personnel had reportedly assembled to protest departmental action against the ACP and another officer following the Oct 23 incident.
