“We would have been beaten black and blue and barely escaped with our lives,” senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan recounted to the Supreme Court the “atmosphere of terror” at the Patiala House Courts complex on Wednesday as a mob dressed in black robes unleashed violence despite Supreme Court’s restraining order.
Mr. Dhawan was part of the six-member team of senior lawyers handpicked by a Supreme Court Bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and A.M. Sapre to visit the violence-torn court complex where a court hearing of a sedition case against JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was scheduled for the afternoon on Wednesday. The team’s report was on Thursday handed over to the Bench in sealed covers.
Taken aback by the sheer inability of the Delhi Police, who had promised the Bench an atmosphere of calm for the smooth functioning of the court, Justice Chelameswar had on Wednesday voiced his exasperation, asking: “Why can’t the police detain these persons irrespective of their occupation”?
Six lawyers appearing in the sedition case, journalists and Kumar’s university friends were trapped inside the courtroom along with the Magistrate hearing the case – too scared to come out.
It was under these circumstances, the Bench asked senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Harin Rawal, Mr. Dhawan, Dushyant Dave along with the Delhi High Court's counsel A.D.N Rao and Ajit Sinha, the police counsel, to go to Patiala House and report back on the situation.
“As we went in there, we saw a crowd of such proportion we have never seen before. It was unprecedented. They were in robes... even our police cordon was broken with people pushing at us,” Mr. Dhawan orally reported to the court after the team returned a few hours later.
Mr. Rawal had his mobile phone camera switched on, recording all that happened around him. “At one point, I passed on the camera to another one of us, because they may try to grab that away from him,” Mr. Rawal told the Bench. He has handed the electronic evidence over to the court along with the team’s report.
Mr. Dhawan spoke of their meeting with Kumar inside the court complex. “He was thoroughly, totally beaten up and was waiting for a medical examination,” the senior lawyer said.
“We were told of an incident, which happened short while ago. A man in dark glasses came into the room, sat, removed his goggles, walked up to Kumar and thumped him, before leaving the room as senior police officers watched on,” Mr. Dhawan narrated.
“The Delhi High Court Registrar General, in front of us, asked the Deputy Commissioner of Police present in the room why he did not stop that man. We also asked the particular officer. We asked whether he knew of the Supreme Court’s order restricting entry. He said yes, but did not say why the man in the dark glasses was not detained,” Mr. Dhawan said.
Mr. Dhawan said how they found the presiding Magistrate in a “tearful condition”
“We realised that there was a very serious threat to the accused’s life,” Mr. Dhawan stated in court.
