Up in arms: Patwari manhandled on court premises

Police stood by and did not intervene, says the patwari.

LAHORE:

A scuffle broke out between a group of lawyers and a patwari at the district courts on Wednesday.

Police said that Advocate Khawar Arshad among others thrashed Rizwan Butt, a patwari, who was at the courts to hand over the district collector’s records to the district coordination office.

Butt said that a few days ago, Arshad and his father had visited his office to examine some property records. Butt said that he told Arshad to approach another patwari for the matter as he was unaware of their property’s records.

He said this led to a heated argument and Arshad threatened him with dire consequences.

On Wednesday, when Butt visited the court, a group of lawyers dragged him from the DCO’s office to the bar room and beat him up.

Police officials deputed at the premises looked on but did not try to intervene, Butt said.

After some time, the Lower Mall station house officer arrived at the scene and tried to break up the clash. However, the lawyers demanded that he produce an FIR first. Later, the deputy superintendent arrived at the scene and assured the lawyers that the police would register a case against the patwari. The lawyers then let Butt go.

Arshad told The Express Tribune that lawyers had not thrashed the patwari. He said that Butt and five other men had attacked them first.

Butt, however, said that the lawyers had beaten him up badly.

He said that Arshad had earlier threatened to rough him up after he told him to approach the relevant patwari.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2014.