Woman lawyer's assault: SC asks police to record statement

The Supreme Court today asked Delhi police to record the statement of a person in its premises in connection with a woman lawyer's complaint that an FIR has not been registered in an incident in which she was allegedly assaulted in a police station here.
A bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Arun Mishra said "the statement of Rahul (the lawyer's supporting staff) is necessary to find out the veracity of some statements by other witnesses. We now direct P K Gupta (DCP) to record the statement at Supreme Court's mediation centre on April 1".
The bench also asked Delhi police to furnish the copy of statement of Rahul to the court by April 9, the next date of hearing.

Lawyer Ambika Das has alleged that police has not been registering the FIR in an incident in which she was assaulted by cops and henchmen of an influential person on April 4, 2014 at Lajpat Nagar Police Station in South Delhi where she had gone to serve a court order relating to a property dispute.
Earlier, the court had posted the matter for hearing today and asked senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, who has been appointed amicus curiae in the case, to file his response to the report of the city police.
The report of a DCP had refuted the allegations of the woman lawyer that she was assaulted at a police station by cops and some henchmen of an influential person.

When Hansaria said the police report was "wrong", the bench asked him to file a proper plea in this regard.

Earlier, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President and senior advocate Dushyant Dave had complained that the police has not even registered a mandatory FIR.
The court had treated as petition a letter written to it by the lawyer in which she had narrated the incident.
It had on May 9 last year taken serious note of Delhi Police's inaction in protecting the woman advocate who was allegedly assaulted at a police station by policemen and henchmen of an influential person against whom she had gone to serve the court's stay order in a property dispute case.

Taking suo-motu cognizance of the "gravity" of the matter, the court had also directed Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi to look into the complaint filed by the lawyer on April 14 last year and asked the DCP (East) to ensure that "no harm is caused to the advocate".