Cuttack: The state CID-crime branch has started probing into the "physical abuse and assault" on a lawyer by police personnel near the fish market at Nuabazar on August 28.
On September 4, Orissa High Court had asked the crime branch to probe into the police-lawyer scuffle after two PILs were filed seeking judicial inquiry into it.
Official sources said two crime branch officers of the rank of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) are on the job inquiring into the four cases registered at the Chauliaganj police station in connection with the incident.
DSP Subhalaxmi Patnaik is inquiring into the two cases registered on the basis of the complaints lodged - one by a person and another by the father of a minor girl injured in the accident that occurred involving a car, which lawyer Debi Prasad Pattnaik was driving, near the Nuabazar fish market at around 4.30pm on August 28.
DSP D.B. Mishra on the other hand is inquiring into the case registered on the basis of a written report submitted by havaldar Prasanna Kumar Behera and Pattnaik's charge of police assault.
As part of the investigation process the two inquiring officers of the crime branch have already collected all the documents and records related to the cases while recording statements of Chauliaganj police station officials. They have also reportedly collected some video recordings related to the incident. The two investigating officers have also recorded the statements of the complainants and some eyewitness accounts. The statements of some shopkeepers and traders at the Nuabazar fish market have also been included in the probe process, a crime branch official on condition of anonymity.
The crime branch is expected to submit a preliminary report in the high court when the PILs are taken up for further hearing on Monday.
The two PILs have sought inquiry by a retired high court judge into the "insults and assaults on the honour, dignity and authority of the advocates and immediate action to apprehend the concerned police personnel who physically abused and assaulted the lawyer".
