Lawlessness in court unabated; brazen lawyers attack JNUSU chief, shout slogans, throw stones.
New Delhi: Welcome to the “rule of pat-riotic lawyers!” For the second time in a week, the ‘pat-riotic lawyers” in the capital’s Patiala House courts proved to the world that they are free to attack the accused student union leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, journalists covering the event and even intimidate senior lawyers who have been deputed by the Supreme Court to file a report for its considerations.
Commenting on the attack on journalists, Union I & B Minister Arun Jaitley said that the media has the unhindered right to report an attack on media persons and an attempt to restrain it is highly improper and condemnable.
But when Tuesday’s ruckus got played out on the court premises yet again on Wednesday, the Delhi Police, under Commissioner B S Bassi, who had been expressly directed by the Supreme Court to ensure proper and adequate security, remained a mute spectator.
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As the police looked the other way, a group of lawyers armed with lathis went around threatening everybody and coaxing them to shout slogans of “Vande Mataram.” They attacked journalists as well as JNU students in a repeat of the previous day’s violence; the rowdy brigade was again led by one Vikram Chauhan who was caught on camera beating journalists on Monday as well.
To add to the ignominy, a person who had attacked Kanhaiya Kumar inside the court room premises simply walked away unhindered. This was the second attack as Kumar, accused of sedition, was punched and kicked by a group of rowdy lawyers as he was being escorted by a posse of policemen from the vehicle to court. A medical examination later revealed that he had suffered abrasions on the face and both the legs.
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POLICE CHIEF IN DENIAL: The police commissioner, however, denied that Kanhaiya Kumar was beaten up on the court premises. “My information is that there was jostling when he was brought to court in which he lost one of his slippers,” he said, claiming that the police officers escorting him took proper care by protecting him from both front and back.
SC STEPS IN: Even as the violence was being perpetrated in the court complex, senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, Indira Jaising and Prashant Bhushan informed the top court that a tense situation was building up at the Patiala House where a group of lawyers and others were resorting to violence. Acting swiftly, the apex court appointed a team of six senior members of the bar to proceed to the Patiala House to report on the situation. The team comprised Sibal, Rajeev Dhawan, Dushyant Dave, A D N Rao, Ajit K Sinha and Haren Rawal.
The lawyers’ team then rushed to Patiala House under heavy police escort and had to wade through an angry mob of lawyers who showered abuses on them. They reached the Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen’s court just as the proceedings had wound up but they were able to talk to Kumar.
Lovleen had remanded Kumar to judicial custody till March 2 but the accused had to spend three more hours in the court room as the belligerent lawyers laid siege outside. Late in the evening, he was taken to Tihar jail where he will be lodged under heavy security.
RUCKUS IN SC, TOO: The proceedings in the Supreme Court too were not incident free. A lawyer shouted slogans inside the court room during the hearing of the case pertaining to the violence in Patiala House court. A bench, comprising justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre, was taken aback when a lawyer, later identified as Rajiv Yadav, raised slogans inside the jam-packed court room.
B S Bassi Under Fire
The Congress has demanded Delhi police commissioner B S Bassi should immediately be sacked and no post-retirement placement should be given to him. “I think that ‘goondas’ in garb of being lawyers have taken over Patiala House Court with the active connivance of the Delhi Police and this is being repeated day after day. The same people who are shown on TV channels, they are allowed to go there and create trouble. It clearly shows that the police are hand in glove with them,” said party spokesperson Ajay Maken.
Lawyer Gets Away
Among JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar’s attackers in court on Wednesday was a lawyer who says he was detained but “pulled strings” to get away. Surinder Tyagi brazenly declared that he was “exercising his fundamental duty” when he attacked the student. Many of the attackers later boasted to the police that their “job was done”. Among them was Surinder Tyagi, who left his own case at a different court in the city when he heard that the JNU student’s case would come up
on Wednesday. “I was only here to exercise my fundamental duty. If anyone wants to divide India, we will have to deal with them. All my colleagues from other courts who wanted to exercise their fundamental duty have come today,” said Tyagi.
He admitted that he was detained in court after he hit Kumar, “but I pulled some strings and managed to get out.” A large group of lawyers today virtually turned the court premises into a warzone as they shouted slogans, threw stones at the media and roughed up those who were not on their side.
The same lawyers pounced on Kumar, who was charged with sedition for allegedly making anti-national comments at an event at JNU in support of terrorist Afzal Guru. Three lawyers have been summoned by the police. Among them is Vikram Chauhan, who was also one of the main attackers in an assault on JNU teachers and students and journalists at the same court on Monday.
Global Support For Kanhaiya
The JNUSU chief Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charges for an event that took place on the JNU campus on February 9th, is getting support cutting across party lines. Even Bollywood actor and BJP MP from Bihar Shatrughan Sinha has come out in his defence and asserted that there was nothing objectionable in his speech.
A statement signed by 86 eminent scientists and writers from across the world, including renowned thinker Noam Chomsky and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, condemned “the culture of authoritarian menace that the present government in India has generated” and said those in power are replicating the dark times of an oppressive colonial period and of the Emergency of the mid-1970s.
“We have learnt of the shameful act of the Indian government which, by invoking sedition laws formulated by India’s colonial rulers, ordered the police to enter the JNU campus and unlawfully arrest a student leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, on charges of inciting violence — without any proof whatever of such wrongdoing on his part,” the statement said.
“Since there is no evidence to establish these charges, we can only conclude that this arrest is further evidence of the present government’s deeply authoritarian nature, intolerant of any dissent, setting aside India’s long-standing commitment to toleration and plurality of opinion,’’ it added.
JD(U) spokesman and member of Legislative Council Neeraj Kumar also paid a visit to Kanhaiya’s home at Madhusudanpur (Bihar) and expressed solidarity with his family. “The unfolding of events indicates that Kanhaiya Kumar’s intention was to establish peace in the prestigious university and not any anti-national activity. About 120 hours have passed since the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, but no evidence against him has been made public. The Centre should either present evidence against the JNUSU president or withdraw allegation of sedition against him,” he said.
