Kanhaiya Kumar: I was attacked, but cops did nothing

Arrested Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar told a Supreme Court-appointed lawyers’ probe panel that he was thrashed — kicked and punched and pushed to the ground — and injured by men dressed as lawyers when he was brought to the Patiala House courts complex on February 17 and the Delhi police did not do anything, claims which could land the police, already facing flak, into more trouble.

Delhi police commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi on Saturday announced that the JNU sedition case has been transferred to the special cell from the South District police.

“I have directed my officers to transfer the case to special cell as the matter needs focused investigation. In a case registered under Section 124 A (sedition), the special cell shall do justice,” the top cop said.

The process of transfer will take around two days, he said, adding that the local police district would not be able to put the focus which the case demands as they have to deal with numerous routine law and order affairs.

In a parallel development, Ashutosh, the fourth of the five students the police had been seeking, joined the investigation after he was summoned. He was questioned at the R.K. Puram police station till late into Saturday evening.

The police custody of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, meanwhile, was extended by two more days by a city court. Kanhaiya Kumar, while narrating the sequence of events to the lawyers’ panel in a video, said: “When the police brought me inside the court’s gate, a mob of men in lawyers’ robes attacked me. It appeared as if they were ready to attack and they were calling others also. I was assaulted,” adding, “The police escorting me tried to save me but the police officials were also beaten up.”

The panel of six advocates — Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhavan, Dushyant Dave, A.D.N. Rao, Ajit Kumar Sinha and Haren Raval, had visited the Patiala House courts on February 17 after the apex court was informed that Mr Kanhaiya Kumar was beaten up when being produced before the magistrate.

After Mr Kumar narrated the incident to the panel inside the courtroom, Mr Sibal called New Delhi district DCP Jatin Narwal and asked him about it. “How did you allow the attack to take place inside the court premises Your men were there. What were they doing How was he (the man who attacked Kanhaiya outside the gate of the courtroom) allowed to come inside,” the panel members asked the DCP.

Responding, Mr Narwal said: “He came with the escort party and entered the room adjacent to the courtroom.” The panel members then called other police officials — the SHOs of Tilak Marg, Vasant Kunj (North) and Sarojini Nagar police stations — and asked them about the incident, and they replied that the person who had attacked Mr Kumar had claimed that he was his lawyer.

Mr Kumar told the panel that when he was assaulted he fell down and sustained injuries and at that time he could not see what the police were doing. To this, Mr Sibal told the DCP: “That means the police was there and they did nothing.”

The student leader told the panel that the person who had attacked him had come to the adjacent courtroom and he had told his teacher about it. “I told my teacher that this man was assaulting me and then the police asked that person about his identity. He, in turn, questioned the policeman and asked him to show his I- card. That person left the place in front of the police and the police did nothing. He could have been apprehended there itself. I had told the police that this man had assaulted me,” he said.

On February 17, a mob of rowdy lawyers had launched a brazen attack on Mr Kanhaiya Kumar, journalists and others, and also indulged in stone-pelting and hurling abuse at the panel of senior lawyers.

The panel members then asked Mr Kanhaiya Kumar whether he could identify the policemen who were present there and the man who had assaulted him. He replied, “I can identify. I had told the police that this man had assaulted me and I want to file a complaint against him. He was the first person who had assaulted me at the gate.” At this juncture, the panel members told the DCP: “His safety is your responsibility. Do not give excuses. This is unbelievable. You are now under the Supreme Court’s orders and not B.S. Bassi’s orders.”

Mr Kumar told the panel that the persons who attacked him were “highly politically motivated persons”. He said he had narrated the incident to the magistrate during the hearing. “I told the judge that on the first day when I was brought to the court, there was no attack and everything was normal. I am a Ph.D student of JNU and I am being called a traitor... I have full faith in the Constitution of India,” the JNUSU president said. Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested and charged with sedition for allegedly raising anti-India slogans on the JNU campus on February 9.

Meanwhile, another JNU student, Ashutosh, who the police was looking out for in connection with the sedition case, joined the investigation Saturday after receiving a police summons. Ashutosh, who is JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar’s predecessor, is one of the five students, including Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who resurfaced on the varsity’s campus on Sunday night.

Ashutosh was served the summons Friday night. On Saturday morning he went to R.K. Puram police station where Khalid and Anirban are at present being interrogated. The other two students, Rama Naga and Anant Kumar, are yet to receive summons from the police. There were unconfirmed reports, however, that Rama Naga could surrender soon.

At JNU, ex-servicemen addressed the students during a talk on nationalism. The session was attended by hundreds of students.