Lawyers at Panchkula district courts have also decided to suspend work on Monday.
THE PUNJAB and Haryana High Court Bar Association on Sunday came out in support of Dera Sacha Sauda lawyer and senior advocate S K Garg Narwana and decided to abstain from work on Monday to protest against the registration of FIR against him in the case of alleged fraud involving the property worth Rs 80 crore at Zirakpur. The bar members will meet the Chief Justice on Monday morning and have also appealed to the bar associations across Punjab and Haryana to stand in solidarity with the lawyer.
Narwana, who represents Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the criminal appeal against his conviction and also in the public interest litigation on the 2017 Dera violence, is among the 40 accused named in the FIR registered by the Sector 5 police station for alleged extortion, cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal intimidation. The complainant, Panchkula-based businessman Ajay Veer Sehgal, has alleged that he had purchased 12.5-acre land at Zirakpur in 2004 but later found that ownership of a part of the plot was under dispute before the courts. He has claimed that Narwana along with others pressured him to surrender the disputed property to Diwan Bal Krishan.
The executive committee of the Bar Association in a resolution “strongly” condemned the registration of FIR against Narwana and said, “on perusal of the FIR the bar association feels that the same has been registered in most causal and callous manner by the investigating agency for the reasons best known to it”.
Seeking cancellation of the FIR against Narwana, the bar association said the FIR at the Panchkula police station is without jurisdiction as the land in question is situated in Zirakpur area of Punjab and added that a lawyer representing his client is no crime.
“The Bar Association further condemns the role of media in reporting the issue in a negative and one-sided manner to tarnish and malign the reputation of a senior member of the bar,” it said in the resolution. “The bar association stands in solidarity with S K Garg (Narwana) Sr. Adv. and shall not allow the police to overreach the law in completely arbitrary and illegal manner.”
The honorary secretary of the bar association, advocate Ravinder Singh Randhawa, told Chandigarh Newsline that the senior members of the bar on Monday morning will also meet the High Court Chief Justice. “We have met the Advocate General Haryana and also the Commissioner of Panchkula. They have assured us they are looking into the matter. We will decide on the future course of action on Monday after further developments,” he said.
Narwana told Chandigarh Newsline that he was only representing a party in the property dispute case and the FIR against him is wrong. “This is being wrongly highlighted by media. Please go through the FIR content and then only write the story,” he said, adding that he has now left the future course of action to the bar association which has already condemned the police act.
Sehgal in the complaint before the police has said that Narwana never gave him the copy of agreement on the property dispute and his associates demanded lakhs of rupees for getting the copy.
Besides Narwana, the Dera Sacha Sauda-affiliated people, including Chamkour Singh and Ram Murti, have also been booked in the case registered on February 28. It has also been mentioned in the complaint before the police that “they (accused) took the complainant to Dera Sacha Sauda on the pretext that we will pray to Baba Ram Rahim to settle the dispute….”
Lawyers at Panchkula district courts have also decided to suspend work on Monday.
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