Islamabad: Police today locked the main gate of the residence of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry to prevent him from stepping out and took into custody two top members of the legal fraternity who tried to meet him, a day after the government announced that there was no restriction on the movement of the sacked judges.

Chaudhry and 10 other judges of the apex court, who did not endorse the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on November 3, had been placed under house arrest. Scores of High Court judges were also sacked.

After locking the gate of Chaudhry's home in the Judges Colony here, police erected barbed wire barricades and parked vehicles outside to prevent him from walking out of the residence.

Retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, who unsuccessfully contested the October 6 presidential poll against Musharraf, and lawyer Athar Minallah, who served in Musharraf's Cabinet during the first two years of his rule, were taken into custody when they tried to enter the Judges Colony to meet Chaudhry.

The move came a day after Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said all the deposed judges are free to leave their homes. However, when Chaudhry tried to go out of his home after hearing about Cheema's remarks, police thwarted his move.

Several other sacked judges too were not allowed to come out of their homes in the Colony.

Source : PTI