round 2 p.m. on Wednesday, as JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, escorted by policemen, reached the Patiala House Courts, a group of lawyers pounced on them and landed punches and kicks on the student leader.
Kumar had a tough time making his way through the unruly mob as the lawyers continued to attack him despite the policemen trying to shield him from all sides. The police presence proved grossly inadequate to tackle the crowd that laid siege on Kumar.
Later, a smaller group attacked Kumar again in another courtroom on the same floor where he was to be produced for hearing.
A team of doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, who conducted the medical check-up on Kumar at the court premises following an order by the Metropolitan Magistrate, said Kumar had suffered minor abrasions on his legs and face.
“According to the team, there were only minor abrasions on his face and both the legs. There were no major injuries,” hospital sources told PTI.
The police, however, added that there could be internal injuries as well.
Later, Kumar identified a lawyer, who was sitting in a different courtroom where the Registrar-General of the Delhi High Court was sitting to monitor the security, as one of the persons who had slapped him.
The lawyer immediately slipped out of the courtroom. The Registrar-General pulled up the Delhi Police and asked them how the lawyer managed to come into the room and why he was allowed to walk away. The same lawyer later boasted before a reporter that he had given “such tight slaps to Kumar that he would remember them all his life”.
Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Dushyant Dave, who visited the court to observe the security of the accused on the direction of the Supreme Court, also pulled up the DCP of the New Delhi district present in the courtroom for letting the attacker lawyer walk away.
Later, the court took a suo motu cognisance of the attack and ordered that an FIR be registered. A senior police officer said that the written statement on the attack submitted by Kumar before the magistrate will serve as the complaint in the case and the name of the accused would be subsequently added.
Wednesday’s violence at Patiala House Courts was a grim sequel of Monday’s pandemonium that broke out at the same venue. It all started around 1.30 p.m. when All India Students’ Federation activist Pradeep Rathi and lawyer Rajeev Verma, both from Sonepat, and a few other lawyers had an argument with a large group of lawyers outside Gate Number 2, where a heavy media contingent was also present.
Both Mr. Verma and Mr. Rathi claimed to be JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar’s friends and supporters and had made statement supporting him, which did not go down well with the lawyers’ group that included Yashpal Singh, Om Sharma and Vikram Singh Chauhan, all of whom are accused of assaulting journalists on February 15.
The group, led by Singh, accused Verma and others of being anti-national. They responded by saying that they did not require the certificate of anyone on nationalism. “At that very instance, the lawyers started bashing us and dragged me and Rathi inside the gate. They abused us, kicked us, punched and kept repeating, do you want to become Kumar’s advocate,” said Verma.
He added that earlier in the day he had submitted a letter to the District Judge of Patiala House Courts urging that no one should be allowed to take law into their hands.
Policemen at the court did little to stop the lawyers except closing the gate to prevent the entry of others.
Firstpost.com reporter Tarique Anwar, who was present inside the court and tried to click pictures, became a target of the mob fury.
Mr. Anwar, who suffered injuries on his nose and bruises, said repeated pleas that he was a journalist were ignored.
Verma and Rathi submitted a written complaint at the Tilak Marg police station, but no case was registered till late evening.
