The Delhi high court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking a fact-finding inquiry into conflicting accounts over the alleged use of lathis by Delhi police against the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) student protesters during their march towards Parliament by the Delhi police and social media.
“All sorts of matters are filed. Everything that catches your imagination after reading the newspaper, you will file a petition? These high sounding words, accountability, transparency are not to be used in a vacuum like this. What is your petition? Delhi police issued a statement, that statement is being contradicted by the media, and you are asking us to get an inquiry conducted into it. The court was hearing a petition filed by Naresh, who claimed to be associated with the media community. He alleged a discrepancy between a statement posted by Delhi police on social media denying the alleged lathi charge and media reports claiming that force had been used against the protesters. Naresh submitted that he approached the police seeking clarification on the matter, but received no response. As protesters attempted to move through central Delhi, the Delhi police stopped the march using multiple layers of barricades. Videos that surfaced on social media showed several protesters, many of them appearing unarmed, being beaten by police personnel in riot gear, with some sustaining head injuries. Police, however, maintained that the crowd had turned violent and alleged that protesters pelted stones at security personnel, necessitating the use of force.
On August 18, the Supreme Court constituted five member high powered enquiry committee (HPEC) headed by former Supreme Court judge R Subhash Reddy, to independently examine the competing allegations arising from the protest. The Supreme Court on September 10, had directed HPEC committee to begin its probe into the July protests by examining the use of pellet guns, targetted violence and harassment of police presonnel while making clear that the broader constitutional questions arising from the protest would be decided by the court itself. He therefore urged the court to direct Delhi police to respond to his representation.
Is there a duty on the Delhi police to decide your representation?” the bench said. In the afternoon on Monday, a large group breached the barricades and advanced towards the Parliament complex, prompting security personnel to fire tear gas shells and carry out a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.
