9 cops booked for assaulting, robbing lawyers inside Lucknow police station

LUCKNOW: Nine police personnel, including the Station House Officer (SHO) of Vibhuti Khand police station, Pankaj Kumar Singh, have been booked for allegedly assaulting, robbing, and threatening a group of lawyers inside the station premises on March 14.

According to an FIR filed by Advocate Saurabh Verma, the incident occurred when Verma visited the police station after learning that three fellow lawyers — Shivam Pan, Shubham Yadav, and Abhishek Singh — were allegedly being beaten inside the station.

Upon arrival, Verma claimed he witnessed several police officers, including Pankaj Kumar Singh, Irfan, Yogendra Singh Sengar, Shubham Tyagi, Anuj Kumar, Suhail Khan, and others, assaulting the detained lawyers. Some of the accused officers reportedly removed their nameplates to conceal their identities.

The complaint further alleged that the officers verbally abused the lawyers, threatened to kill them, and mocked their profession. They also allegedly looted valuables, including wallets and gold chains, from the detained lawyers.

In a shocking revelation, Verma claimed that the officers threatened to force the lawyers to drink urine and even poured urine on some of their faces. The accused police personnel reportedly demanded ?50,000 from each detained lawyer, threatening to implicate them in false cases if they failed to pay.

Advocate Rahul Pandey, a junior colleague of Verma, alerted the Central Bar Association President, prompting several lawyers to rush to the police station and secure the victims' release.

The FIR also accused the police of deliberately deleting CCTV footage from the station premises to erase evidence of the incident.

Late on Friday night, the lawyers staged a protest against the police action by sitting at Vibhuti Khand crossing and threatening to escalate the protest to the police commissioner's residence. However, senior police officers arrived at the scene and pacified the lawyers.

The protest ended only after the FIR was lodged late at night. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Zone) Pankaj Singh stated that an FIR had been registered under BNS sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult), 309(4) (robbery), 351(3) (threats to cause death), and 191(2) (rioting) against the SHO Pankaj Kumar Singh, eight other police personnel, and unidentified officers.

"We are probing all the allegations," he said.