Members of the Bar Association of Rourkela block a road in front of the Rourkela court on Wednesday. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Cuttack, April 6: The ongoing row over the alleged “physical and mental torture” of judicial magistrate (first class), Rourkela, Arun Kumar Patnaik, turned into a war between the lawyers and the Orissa Police Association (OPA).

The OPA today threatened to launch an agitation if the police officer, suspended for allegedly assaulting Patnaik, was further victimised by the Orissa government under pressure from the lawyers.

“We will be forced to take recourse to statewide agitation if further action is taken against the police officer instead of reinstating him,” OPA president S.N. Sharma told The Telegraph today.

The Rourkela unit of OPA has decided to organise a rally in the steel city and submit a memorandum to the additional district magistrate (ADM) demanding action against the magistrate apart from an impartial probe into the incident.

The OPA, which is being supported by the Orissa Havildar, Constable and Sepoy Confederation, has also sought the government’s intervention to stop road blockades by lawyers as this was causing problems to people.

On the third day of their agitation, the lawyers gave call for a bandh in the steel city on April 8. Local units of the BJP and the CPI(M) promptly supported the bandh call.

Strongly opposing such “pressure tactics”, Sharma said: “There was no dispute whatsoever between the police and the advocates at any stage. As revealed by a fact-finding committee, the dispute was between a judicial magistrate and police. Therefore, it is needless and unwarranted on part of the advocates to take up this issue on their own and abstain from attending courts.”

“The ongoing strike is only to put pressure both the government and the judiciary,” the OPA president said.

The lawyers’ strike, demanding the inspector’s arrest, had triggered discontentment among police inspectors, sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors.

The OPA had deliberated on the issue at a joint coordination committee meeting with the Orissa Havildar, Constable and Sepoy Confederation today in Cuttack and adopted a “unanimous resolution to strongly oppose any such move”.

The association representing around 7,000 police officers in the rank of inspectors, sub-inspectors (SI) and assistant sub-inspectors (ASI), along with the confederation representing around 45,000 havildars, constables and sepoys, has demanded reinstatement of Pujari.

“Two cases have been registered at the Uditnagar police station. Both are under investigation. The chief minister had also ordered a judicial inquiry. Besides, the Chief Justice of the high court has taken it up as a PIL and is adjudicating on it. So there is no justification for the advocates to continue with their strike instead of waiting for the verdicts,” Sharma said.

On the other hand, the Orissa High Court Bar Association today passed a resolution to continue cease work.

“We decided to continue abstaining from court work tomorrow as there had been no response from the government to our demand for immediate arrest of the suspended police officer and suspension of the Rourkela SP,” High Court Bar Association secretary Lalatendu Samantaray told The Telegraph.

Members of other several Bars continued to agitate and boycott court proceedings by locking up court gates.

They pressed for immediate arrest of suspended police inspector Sadananda Pujari and transfer of Rourkela SP Diptesh Patnaik.

Lawyers in Rourkela also staged road blockade in front of the court and picketed in front of the government offices in the city.

In another development, the Orissa government today submitted a status report on the judicial magistrate-police case in the high court in pursuance to notices issued on a PIL to the home secretary and the Rourkela SP yesterday.

Taking note of it, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra fixed Friday for hearing the PIL and directed the Orissa government to file an updated status report.