Delhi police personnel protested outside the main gate of the police headquarters on Monday over the transfer of two officers following a clash between police and lawyers at Shahdara police station, creating an unusual situation in which police had to prevent their own colleagues from entering or continuing the demonstration.
The protesters were seen carrying placards and posters and raising slogans outside the headquarters. The demonstration followed transfer orders issued on October 28 for Assistant Commissioner of Police Manaswi Vashishth and Arun Kumar, who had served as the Station House Officer of Shahdara police station.
The dispute began with a confrontation between police personnel and lawyers at the station on October 23. A lawyer suffered serious head injuries in the physical altercation. Lawyers subsequently announced an indefinite strike, according to the report. The transfers were issued after the protest by lawyers, with Vashishth moved to a special police unit dealing with women and children and Kumar transferred to the security unit.
Vashishth was present alongside the protesting police officers and said a standard operating procedure should be established for dealing with such incidents, according to Hindustan Times as cited by Live Hindustan. He questioned how police personnel could protect residents if they were not protected in similar situations themselves.
During the protest, Vashishth and other officers were called inside the headquarters at around 11.30 am to present their demands and meet the police commissioner. The supplied report does not state whether the meeting resulted in a decision on the transfers or whether the protesters formally ended their demonstration.
The episode places Delhi Police’s internal disciplinary and transfer procedures alongside the competing claims of police personnel and lawyers. For the police force, the officers’ protest centres on whether personnel receive institutional support when disputes arise during station-level operations. For the legal community, the earlier allegation was that the ACP and SHO had threatened lawyers who went to the station seeking action against those accused in the assault on the injured lawyer.
Sourav Das, national spokesperson and co-convener of the Cockroach Janta Party, criticised the protest in posts on X. He asked whether the police personnel would be made to sign peace bonds for allegedly disturbing public order and described the demonstration as an unprecedented scene. Ratna Singh, the party’s legal head, questioned whether Delhi Police would detain its own officers for protesting outside a police station and seek guarantees before releasing them.
The immediate administrative issue remains the status of the October 28 transfer orders and the response to the officers’ demand for a standard operating procedure. The next formal step identified in the report is the meeting between the protesting officers and the Delhi Police commissioner.
