More than 65 advocates in Kerala have reportedly filed anticipatory bail at the High Court on behalf of their colleague who assaulted a policeman. The anticipatory bail plea was filed for advocate CS Hemlal, who is accused of assaulting Laisad Muhammed, who is currently Inspector Station House Officer at Coastal Station Beal in Kasaragod. The policeman was assaulted outside the High Court when he came to discuss an issue with the lawyer at a committee convened by the Advocate General.
A month ago when Laisad was a sub inspector in Cherthala of Alappuzha district, he had registered a case against Hemal for parking at an unauthorised place. Following this, Hemal had filed a complaint at the Bar Council alleging that the case was illegal and he was assaulted.
"After we took the case, he (Hemlal) gave a complaint at the High Court Bar Council...There is a committee to solve issues between police and advocates. Advocate General is the convenor and the state police chief is also a member of this permanent committee. So this committee had officially called me to discuss the issue on February 15. I went to Ernakulam to attend the meeting. After coming out from the meeting, I was abused and assaulted by a group of advocates," Laisad told TNM.
Following this a case was filed against Hemlal in Ernakulam central police station. "There were few advocates, but it was Hemlal who showed me to others,and then they assaulted me," the police official alleged.
Laisad said that the filing of multiple bail petitions by advocates together shows their unity.
This was not the first incident where police officers have been assaulted by advocates. In May 2018 in Thiruvananthapuram, a Sub Inspector was assaulted at district court premises by a group of lawyers for filing a case against their colleague for consuming alcohol in public.
In 2016, a group of lawyers had assaulted some journalists outside the High Court. In another incident in Thiruvananthapuram, journalists were attacked by lawyers in the court of the vigilance judge.