Hapur, UP:

The Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday lodged an FIR over the alleged lathi-charge on lawyers here recently, naming 51 policemen and mentioning 90 unnamed personnel.

The development comes after lawyers across UP went on a three-day strike beginning Monday to protest the alleged police action against advocates in Hapur district.

Police had allegedly lathi-charged lawyers on August 29 when they were protesting against the registration of a case against a woman advocate and her father around a week ago.

On the complaint of an advocate, the FIR has been registered against policemen under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 392 (robbery), Additional SP Mukesh Mishra said.

 Senior advocate Sudhir Rana filed the complaint against 51 policemen, including circle officer (city), six inspectors, and 14 sub-inspectors, and about 90 unknown policemen at City police station, Hapur Bar Association (HBA) president E Haq said.

The HBA has also decided to boycott the ‘Rashtriya Lok Adalat’ to be held on September 9, he said, adding that members of some political parties and social organizations reached the protest site on Wednesday.

On August 30, police had registered an FIR against 17 lawyers and over 250 unidentified people at City police station in Hapur over a protest by some advocates at the tehsil crossing.

The decision to go on a strike was taken on Sunday at a meeting of the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh, which has demanded the transfer of the Hapur district magistrate and superintendent of police, lodging of FIR against policemen, withdrawal of fake cases against lawyers and compensation to lawyers injured in the lathi-charge.

Speaking at the dharna by the lawyers here, advocate Anil Azad slammed police for a “cowardly” attack on the advocates and said their strike will continue until the demands are fulfilled.

HBA secretary Narendra Sharma said that the Azad Samaj Party led by Chandra Sekhar Azad has extended support to the agitating lawyers.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)