HRPC to probe alleged assault of advocate

With the lawyers boycotting courts over the brutal attack on an advocate allegedly by police last week, Odisha Government today decided to hand over the investigation of the case to the Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC).
This was announced by Law Minister Arun Sahoo as the lawyers, under the banner of the Bhubaneswar Bar Association, rejected the commissionrate police's claim that advocate Nihar Ranjan Sethi sustained injuries due to a road accident and not by policemen.
"The government decided to give investigation to the HRPC to ensure impartial and fair investigation by a third agency," the law minister said.
The minister said the government had also decided to bear the expenses of the medical treatment of the injured advocate on humanitarian grounds.

While rejecting the police claim, the lawyers had yesterday demanded an impartial probe into the incident. The All Odisha Lawyers' Association had demanded a thorough probe by a district judge, CBI or Human Rights Commission.
On July 17, Sethi had lodged a complaint with the Badagada police station accusing some unidentified police personnel of a PCR van of assaulting him near Ravi Talkies the previous day.
Police, on the other hand, said its personnel rescued Sethi at Rasulgarh where he met with an accident.
While lawyers boycotted all courts in Bhubaneswar since July 18, those of the High Court in Cuttack did not attend court yesterday.