Calcutta HC lawyers to abstain from work tomorrow after advocate, son thrashed

Kolkata, Aug 21 The Calcutta High Court Bar Association has unanimously resolved to abstain from work on Friday in protest against the alleged assault by policemen of the Bidhannagar East police station on advocate Manujendra Narayan Roy, who is also the son of a retired High Court judge.

As a result, lawyers at the Calcutta High Court and the Central Administrative Tribunal's (CAT) Kolkata Bench will abstain from court proceedings on Friday.

In a meeting of the Association, it was unanimously resolved that as a mark of protest against the police atrocities on Manujendra Narayan Roy, the members of the Bar Association will not participate in any judicial proceedings in any mode and manner before the High Court on Friday i.e. August 22 from 10:30 a.m. onwards, until proper and satisfactory punitive measure and/or action is taken against the erring police personnel, who deliberately and brutally assaulted the advocate.

"The members of the Bar Association, Calcutta High Court, shall not participate in any judicial proceedings in any mode or manner before this Court... until proper and satisfactory punitive action is taken against the erring police personnel," the High Court Bar Association said in its resolution.

It further announced that it will review the situation on August 25 after being informed of the measures taken against the accused police personnel.

Meanwhile, the CAT Bar Association said that the violence by authorities is not justice but an abuse of power.

"In such circumstances, we have decided to abstain ourself from participating in any Judicial Process tomorrow i.e. on August 22 from 11 a.m. onwards as a mark of protest against such brutal and barbaric attack by the Police Authority," it added.

The development came after Calcutta High Court lawyer Manujendra Narayan Roy and his son Sourindra Narayan Roy were allegedly attacked and thrashed by policemen in civilian clothes near their residence in Kolkata's Salt Lake area.

The incident allegedly took place on Wednesday night.

Manujendra Narayan Roy is the son of retired Calcutta High Court judge Ranendra Narayan Roy.

A case has been lodged at Bidhannagar East police station over the incident.

Alleging police assault, the lawyer's family filed a case in the Calcutta High Court on Thursday and sought an urgent hearing.

This application was made by lawyer Anindya Lahiri in the court of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh.

The single bench has approved the filing of the case and hearing was held later on Thursday.

Justice Ghosh directed Aneesh Sarkar, the Deputy Commissioner of Police in-charge of Bidhannagar (East) Police Station, to preserve the CCTV footage of the location referred to of August 20 and 21.

The court also directed the Commissioner of Police, Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, not to assign any further duty to Tushar Kumar Chandra, Assistant Sub-Inspector, who is one of the accused police personnel, till further orders from the court.

The matter has been posted for next hearing on August 25.

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