Delhi advocate shot dead: Lawyers to protest on April 3

Lawyers in Delhi will “completely abstain” from work in all district courts on Monday (April 3) to protest the killing of a fellow lawyer.

In a letter to its members, the New Delhi Bar Association (NDBA) said the coordination committee of all the district bar associations in the national capital has decided that they will abstain from even bail and stay hearings. Photocopy machines at the courts will also be shut, a report on NDTV said.

A 53-year-old advocate was shot dead in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka on Saturday evening, police said.

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Two assailants on a motorcycle shot at advocate Virender Kumar Narwal who was in a car, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) M Harsh Vardhan said. Kumar lived in Dwarka Sector-12, police said, adding that he was an advocate by profession.

Prima facie, personal enmity is suspected to be the reason behind the incident. Multiple teams are working on the case from all angles, they added.

Terming the murder in broad daylight as an “attack on the lawyers’ fraternity”, the North Delhi Lawyers Association (NDLA) said even the lawyers’ families were in a “vulnerable situation”.

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“Incidents of threatening and violent acts against advocates are rising day by day but no security has been assured to us. Even our families are in a vulnerable situation,” NDLA said in a statement on Sunday (April 2).

“NDLA have been raising voice for the Advocate Protection Act since long, and now it is need of time to bring and implement the Advocates Protection Act with immediate effect in Delhi also demand CP, Delhi police to take matters related to Advocate security on priority,” the association added.