New Delhi: At least three lawyers were injured when a crude bomb exploded outside the chamber of one of them inside a Lucknow court compound Thursday.
Lucknow Bar Association Joint Secretary Sanjiv Kumar Lodhi claimed he was the target of the attack because he had been “complaining about a few judicial officers”.
He said nearly 10 people entered the premises and hurled crude bombs outside his chamber, injuring him and two other lawyers. “One bomb exploded but two lay unexploded,” he said, questioning the security on the court premises.
Bomb disposal and dog squads have reached the site of the blast.
Chaos was reported from the district court premises after the blasts, with lawyers questioning the police on the security arrangements inside the complex.
Eyewitness account
Shyam Sunder, a lawyer who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident, said three high-intensity crackers exploded inside the court complex. He alleged that six to seven men armed with pistols had entered from two different gates.
“At 11 am, we came to the court. I was at the door of the chamber when two- three men came from gate number three, and four to five men came from gate number 4. They start throwing bombs at the chamber of Sanjiv Kumar Lodhi. While three bombs exploded, the rest did not. Several lawyers who were here got injured as one bomb also hit a lawyer’s head,” he said.
Sunder added, “One lawyer sustained injury on his head, another lawyer was left with an injury on his foot after the bomb exploded near him,” he added.
He said he tried to catch hold of some of the assailants but was overpowered.
“When I tried to catch hold of them, three of them held me by my arms and pointed pistols at me. When I cried out for help, they fled.”
Sunder also said that he could identify at least two of them.
“Two of them are lawyers and I know them well. I do not know the rest,” he said.
The police has registered a case in the matter and begun investigation. A forensic team has also been called in to inspect the crime scene. The police has still not given any clarity on the nature of the explosives.
“They appear to be high-intensity crackers but we are getting the same verified. We are also scanning the CCTV footage from the entry-exit gates of the court complex to ascertain the identity of the miscreants,” a police officer said.
Not the first time
Last month, UP lawyers had gone on a strike in protest against recent attacks on them.
The Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh had asked bar associations to abstain from work to put pressure on the government to pass legislation to protect lawyers.
On 7 January, lawyer Shekhar Tripathi (32) was beaten to death with sticks by five men in Lucknow, triggering anger among his colleagues who sat with the body at the district collectorate demanding justice.
On 17 December, a man was killed and two policemen injured when unidentified assailants opened fire in Bijnore chief judicial magistrate’s court.
With PTI and Prashant Srivastava in Lucknow
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