Guwahati: The All India Lawyers' Forum will provide legal assistance to financially-weak people from the Northeast to fight their cases in other parts of the country.

On Wednesday, the forum promised legal assistance to Helping Hands, an NGO, that provides assistance to distressed people from the region, living in different parts of the country.

During a conference of the forum on Wednesday in New Delhi, inspector-general of Delhi police Robin Hibu, who is associated with the NGO, had made a presentation on the problems faced by people from the Northeast and how they struggle to pay lawyers' fees.

Hibu is now posted in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

On Thursday, he said: "Lawyers from different states who are parts of the forum were deeply moved by the reports of helplessness of crime victims from the Northeast. Many victims do not fight for justice for lack of money to pay lawyers' fees. So they continue to live with the scars for life. It was heartening when hundreds of lawyers of the forum volunteered to fight cases of such victims provided these helpless people are genuine and recommended by our NGO."

Hibu, originally from Arunachal Pradesh, served as the nodal officer of the special Delhi police unit for Northeast people - constituted in February 2015 following the death of Arunachal Pradesh teenager Nido Tania in a hate crime in 2014 - to follow up cases involving people from the region.

The NGO has formed a network of people helping victims of crime from the Northeast.

The three-day conference of the forum was attended by former Chief Justice of India, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, besides lawyers of the Supreme Court, high courts and lower courts.

"The forum promised that its members would help people from the Northeast fight their battles in courts free of cost," Hibu said.