Advocates of the civil court demonstrate during the strike in Ranchi on Wednesday. Picture by Manik Bose

Ranchi, June 4: The Ranchi District Bar Association (RDBA) general body decided to end their strike on June 7 after Association president Shambhu Prasad Agrawal was roughed up by his colleagues.

The decision was taken in an RDBA general body meeting held today on the civil court premises attended by over 500 advocates.

Before the decision was made, RDBA members took offence towards their office bearers. They pelted stones on RDBA president Shambhu Prasad Agrawal and compelled him to change his decision of withdrawing the strike today itself. Apart from this, they also cornered RDBA treasurer Kundan Prakashan with uncomfortable questions.

The RDBA president had to call the Kotwali police station for help and association treasurer Kundan Prakashan had to tender his resignation.

RDBA secretary S.S. Ojha, said it was for the first time that a simple decision was taken in such an extra-ordinary way. “I feared the way the advocates were behaving. I had to take shelter in the library before taking a concrete decision,” he said while furnishing a copy of decision at the general body meeting.

Mohammed Afroz, a civil court advocate, said the situation became tense when advocates learnt that the office-bearers were interested in calling off the strike after their informal meeting with judicial commissioner D.N. Upadhyay.

“This irritated us as we had decided not to call off the strike before June 7. Apart from this, RDBA office bearers met with the judicial commissioner without any prior information,” he said.

The lawyers had gone on strike after their furniture was removed from the verandah of the fast track court.