HC seeks reply from govt on ACJM's assault

The Patna High Court today took cognisance of the alleged manhandling of Gopalganj Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate(ACJM) by policemen and directed Bihar director general of police and principal secretary to the home department to personally appear in the case on Monday.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmad Ansari and Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh gave the direction during hearing on the letter sent by Gopalganj district and sessions judge in this regard.
The Gopalganj district and sessions judge had annexed the copy of the complaint by the ACJM in which he alleged that policemen had misbehaved with him. The HC treated the letter as a PIL before taking it up for hearing.

Principal Additional Advocate General Lalit Kishore told the HC that the state government has asked Saran Divisional Commissioner to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident and submit a report in this regard at the earliest.
The state government has already received a preliminary inquiry report from the district magistrate and superintendent of police in this connection, he said, adding, "We also have a CD that shows that the Judicial Officer became aggressive. We will submit the CD."
The court then posted the case for hearing on Monday.

The incident allegedly took place yesterday when police personnel deployed at Maunia Chowk near the court in Gopalganj had stopped ACJM Prabhunath Prasad, who reached the place riding pillion on a motorcylce, as the district administration had barricaded the road to facilitate election of the chairman and vice-chairman of Gopalganj district board.

A spat between the judge and sub-inspector A K Yadav and constables, who were deputed at Maunia Chowk, ensued over allowing him to go to the court premises through the blocked road. Yadav was allegedly neither ready to talk to the SDPO nor the SP despite the judge's request to do so.
The sub-inspector then lost his cool and allegedly slapped the judge.
Lawyers and bench clerks (peshkars) in the Gopalgunj
court struck work today in protest against the incident and demanded strict action against the policemen.
Meanwhile, sub-inspector Yadav, who is the officer-in- charge of Yadavpur police station and was deputed at the collectorate premises along with other policemen, lodged an FIR with Gopalganj town police station against the ACJM, bench clerks and several lawyers for allegedly beating him and constable Pawan Singh.

In his FIR, Yadav said that two men on a motorcycle wanted to take the road, which was closed, to enter court premises but the constable stopped them and requested them to take another route.
At this, one of the two men on the motorbike abused him and created a scene. The man also slapped him and the constable, the FIR said.