Cuttack, Jan. 2: It has been more than four months since the state government ordered a judicial probe into the death of advocate Bishnu Charan Das, a member of the Cuttack Criminal Court Bar (CCCB) in police firing at Bagalpur last year. The judicial probe was ordered a day after the incident that took place on August 23, 2010. But the official notification was yet to be issued.

“It’s already more than four months and it’s time enough for a judicial inquiry to start functioning,” said CCCB secretary Subash Mohanty adding that the government apathy had led to mounting resentment among the members of the Bar. “Taking note of it, a core committee of the Bar will meet soon to deliberate on the issue and take a decision on the necessary course of action,” Mohanty said today.

The High Court Bar Association, the Cuttack Criminal Court Bar Association and all other bar associations in the city had condemned the police firing and ceased work for a day after the death of the lawyer on August 23. All courts remained paralysed till the lawyers called off their strike on September 4.

The lawyers had demanded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the death of the lawyer, a government job on compassionate grounds for the next of kin and suspension of the officers involved in ordering the police firing.

They called off their strike after the government granted an ex-gratia of Rs 9 lakh and on behalf of the government, the Cuttack collector gave a written assurance that a job would be given to the younger brother of the deceased.

Orissa High Court Bar Association general secretary Lalatendu Samantaray said: “The general body of the association, while calling off the cease work, had authorised the executive body to nominate three lawyers to pursue the case before the inquiry commission regarding amount of compensation to be paid to the family of Bishnu Charan Das, who was killed in police firing.”

“Since a judicial probe into the incident was ordered by the government, a timely notification on the institution of the judicial inquiry should have followed,” Samantaray said today.

The government had ordered the judicial probe after the authorities were accused of allowing the situation to snowball by resorting to lathicharge and firing at Bagalpur that led to the death of the lawyer.

on August 23 noon. The irate villagers had resorted to road blockade demanding crime branch probe into the death of Pradip Samantaray, son of an ex-sarpanch of Bagalpur on August 19 night.

The CPM had also criticized the government for the delay in setting up the probe. “It’s a classic example of mockery of justice”, said Subash Singh, secretary CPM (Cuttack Unit).