Police arrest 200 lawyers to open court in Sambalpur

Sambalpur, Apr 29 (UNI) Police today arrested over 200 lawyers sitting on dharna before the local courts here obstructing the judges to enter the court premises.

The lawyers are on protest dharna demanding the setting up of permanent bench of the High Court in any parts of Western Orissa.

The police action came following the direction of the Orissa High Court to allow the functioning of the courts.

Sambalpur Superintendent of police Sanjay Kumar personally had appeared before the Orissa High Court to appraise police action taken for smooth functioning of the courts at Sambalpur.

After the arrest of the agitating advocates, the magistrates entered into the courts under strict police protection. At least 16 platoons of police were deployed in Sambalpur court premises and office of the RDC, collector and Sub-collector to avert any unpleasant situation.

The police arrested Bipin Nayak, a senior advocate-cum-president of the Sambalpur district bar association, Satyanarayan Panda, Pradip Bahidar, Ms Puspa Mahapatra and many others who were later released.

All the courts at Sambalpur remained opened but without any work since advocates abstained from attending the court.

Similar situations also reported at Bargarh, Jharsuguda and Deogarh. Advocates courted arrest demanding High Court bench at Bargarh.

At Deogarh, all the advocates resorted to cease work but courts remained opened. No unpleasant situation reported anywhere, sources said.

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