’Police allowed attacker to Leave’: Kanhaiya kumar recounts court violence

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Feb 27, 2016:  Police in Delhi’s Patiala House Court allowed the man who assaulted him to walk away, JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar told the team of lawyers sent by the Supreme Court after violence broke out on the premises for the second time in one week, last Wednesday.

 

In a video that was filmed by Haren Rawal, one of the lawyers sent to the court, Mr Kumar states that he was assaulted while being brought in for his hearing. "I was punched, kicked, thrown to the ground," he says.

"A mob dressed like lawyers were waiting to attack me. I was brutally beaten up. Police who were escorting me were also thrashed," he says in the video. He says the attackers were "highly politically motivated".

But when he and a professor from JNU identified one of the attackers, police did not stop the man and allowed him to leave, Mr Kumar says. "They just allowed him to walk away," he says.

His voice catching, Mr Kumar also speaks about being painted as an "anti-national" by a section of the media. "I am citizen of this country, a PhD student, I study in JNU - and they are calling me a traitor," he said.

The JNU student union leader has been arrested under charges of sedition in connection with a controversial event on campus where "anti-national" slogans were allegedly raised. He denies the charges.

The violence at the court on two days last week - February 15 and 17 - drew widespread condemnation as lawyers were caught on camera beating Mr Kumar, students and teachers from JNU and journalists.

The incident had provoked the Supreme Court to rush six senior lawyers for a ground assessment. Yesterday it issued notices to the Centre, Delhi Police and lawyers involved in the violence.

Delhi Police, which arrested BJP lawmaker OP Sharma and three lawyers before releasing them on bail immediately for the violence, has come under sharp criticism for its failure to prevent the attacks.