3 lawyers injured in Lucknow court blast

Lucknow: A crude bomb reportedly went off in a city court compound on Thursday injuring three lawyers. Bar Association joint secretary Sanjiv Kumar Lodhi claimed he was the target of the ‘attack’.

The locally made crude bomb was hurled by a group of men. Two bombs remained unexploded and were seized by the police Lodhi has lodged an FIR against general secretary of Lucknow bar association Jitu Yadav and two others. Lodhi stated in the report that the three men had threatened to kill him a night before.

“It is a clear case of rivalry between two groups that has come to the fore,” said joint commissioner, law and order, Naveen Arora, adding that the security at the collectorate will be reviewed and further strengthened.


However, Thursday's event has yet again laid bare the lack of proper security in courts across the state. Last year in June, Darvesh Yadav, the first woman chairperson of the UP Bar Council was shodead on an Agra court premise by another lawyer. More recently, a brazen shootout in a Bijnor court had led to the killing of a murder accused.

"Justice Sudhir Agarwal of the Allahabad HC had taken note of this and asked the government to take swift action to improve security in courts--today's event clearly shows the direction had not been complied with. Law and order situation has gone for a toss in the state," Hari Shanker Singh, chairman of the UP Bar Council told ET.

The Bijnor incident had caused the Allahabad High Court to intervene and both Avanish Awasthi, the additional chief secretary, home, and the then DGP OP Singh had been summoned to submit a report by January 15 to prepare a roadmap for security of courts across the state.