The Supreme Court on Wednesday formed a high-powered five-member panel to probe the July 20 NEET protest, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, in New Delhi. The committee, headed by retired apex court judge, Justice R Subhash Reddy, will probe the allegations of police excesses against protesters.
Delhi Police denies excessive use of force
Besides Justice Reddy, the committee will comprise former Punjab and Haryana high court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, former Delhi high court Justice Shalinder Kaur, former CBI director Rishi Kumar Shukla and former Meghalaya DGP LR Bishnoi as its members. Lathi charge, tear gas shells were used by the forces to disperse the crowds from moving towards the Parliament. Pellet guns were also allegedly used by the forces.
Earlier on Tuesday, a top court bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Baghchi and V Mohana said that it would also direct the handing over of video footage and CCTV recordings of the violence during the July 20 protest march to the high-powered probe panel. The July 20 protest march to Parliament, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, saw clashes between protesters and security personnel, including the Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF). The Supreme Court’s probe committee formation comes just two days after the Delhi Police defended its use of force against protesters during the July 20 ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest march. He claimed that about 5,000 police personnel were deployed to manage over 30,000 protesters across a radius of nearly three kilometres.
The Delhi Police told the apex court that it resorted to a “graded” response only after the gathering ceased to remain peaceful, with sections of the crowd breaching layers of barricades and trying to move towards Parliament. Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Sharma said the allegation of excessive force was unsustainable, given the scale of the gathering.
