From borders to courts, lawyers huddle for protesting farmers

By Aakanksha Khajuria New Delhi, Feb 7 : As agitating farmers face grave legal challenges emerging out of the Republic Day violence, scores of lawyers from the adjoining states have stationed themselves at the borders, courts and jails of the national capital to offer free legal assistance to them.
On January 26, protesting farmers had clashed with the police during the tractor rally against three farm laws. During the clash, a section of protesters had entered the Red Fort and hoisted a religious flag. So far, the police have arrested over 120 people in connection with the Republic Day violence.
About 160 lawyers, under the banner of ‘Advocates for Farmers’, have split into 11 teams to carry out tasks ranging from data entry of the arrested and missing protesters, drafting, figuring out where they are jailed to filing their bail applications.
Few of them have set up their tents at three borders — Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri — and are contacting the families of those arrested or missing by wading from trolly to trolly. Besides this, they have also set up toll-free numbers to address the farmers’ grievances.
Advocates Ajit Pal Singh Mander and Hakam Singh head the teams and carry out coordination among them. “Data is collected by three teams at the border and execution is carried out by eight teams at different courts in the city,” Mander, belonging to Punjab’s Bathinda district, said.
The advocate said that five protesters have been let out on bail so far, while the petitions of three others are coming up for hearing at the Dwarka court on Monday. “Today we found out that 22 more people are missing since that day (January 26), out of which we have found that eight are lodged in jail,” he said.