17 February 2016
Was #JNU student leader and student union president Kanhaiya Kumar beaten and tortured in Delhi Police custody? This is what the evidence points to.
The facts - Kanhaiya Kumar was targeted and arrested on 13 February 2016 under an untenable sedition charge, though he is still to be formally charged. Kanhaiya Kumar has given speeches sharply critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling BJP government and the RSS. He gave one such speech on 12 February 2016 itself.
Kanhaiya has remained in police custody until today and today according to NDTV news reports he is seriously injured with grave internal injuries but there has been no official Government or Police press release or statement on his condition or on the nature of his injuries or indeed on the cause of these injuries.
Kanhaiya was produced in Patiala House Court on 15 February 2016. Video images of him flashed on TV showed him being escorted by police who were dragging him and preventing him from speaking to reporters while Kanhaiya was trying his best to do that. He looked uninjured in those visuals.
Kanhaiya was again produced in Court today and the visuals on NDTV today showing Kanhaiya Kumar being dragged and physically hauled into the Patiala House Court compound by Delhi Police show him as already badly injured. His face looked all swollen with his right eye swollen shut. His face was contorted in agony and pain. It looks as if he has been beaten and tortured in police custody. A policeman placed his hand over and covered Kanhaiya's face when the cameras panned. The visuals did not show Kanhaiya walking on his own but he was instead being practically dragged and carried upright by a policeman much taller than him and 5 other policemen pulling him or holding him.
So what happened to Kanhaiya? Was he tortured in police custody? Prima facie this appears to be the case.
Kanhaiya has now been remanded to judicial custody and has been sent to Tihar jail for 14 days.
Now note that in the normal course Kanhaiya should have been brought to court both today and on the 15th accompanied by police but walking on his own. He should have been allowed to speak to the media or we would have heard him shouting out to the media. He is still not charged and therefore is not an accused. We would have expected a public statement from his lawyer or been at least told by the media who was representing him. Kanhaiya would have been able to speak to his supporters, students and faculty from JNU.
Instead look at the very convenient sequence of events which have allegedly played out all courtesy of the Delhi Police.
Lawyers with BJP ties were allowed to riot and assault Kanhaiya’s supporters and journalists in Court before the hearing on 15 February. As a result, the judicial hearing could not take place and was adjourned to today. No lawyer appeared or could appear for Kanhaiya on 15 February and his supporters including JNU students, faculty and alumni and journalists were unlawfully evicted by violent lawyers from the court-room before the hearing and before he was brought to court. So no one knows what happened in court on the 15th except what the police told the media. Kanhaiya was entitled to an open and public hearing with his supporters present but a hearing was denied to him on that day essentially because of police actions which failed to stop and which actually facilitated the violence.
Next we hear that a JNU alumni filed a petition before the Supreme Court on the 16th asking that the police be directed to provide adequate security for today’s hearing in Patiala House Court and to provide security to Kanhaiya as there was a threat to his life. This case was heard today morning by the Supreme Court which directed the police to ensure that there was no violence today and to provide security for Kanhaiya. The Supreme Court directed that 5 policemen and 5 journalists pre-selected by the Editor’s Guild would be present in Court. Only 2 supporters of Kanhaiya would be allowed to enter the court-room, whether it be family, friends or JNU supporters. 20 more journalists would be allowed to report from inside the court compound. The Supreme Court also directed the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court to be present inside the Patiala House court-room. Once again an open public hearing was converted into a closed hearing with pre-screening of who could be present in court. In my view the Supreme Court was not correct in directing that only two supporters of Kanhaiya could enter the court-room.
What followed was a farcical drama enacted by the Delhi Police. It failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s directions and failed to secure the Patiala House Court premises. Mobs of lawyers including lawyers who rioted on the 15th were allowed to shout slogans, intimidate, assault and beat up people, carry lathis, march, block entrances, fight and even throw stones in the Court premises and outside it.
The farce played out on TV in real time and the Supreme Court apparently at some point directed that the court-room be evacuated.
Then the Delhi Police story goes that Kanhaiya was produced in court and somehow while he was still in police custody and surrounded by policemen, some lawyers managed to assault him inside the court-room. This news was flashed on TV. No further visuals of Kanhaiya were seen. According to TV news a medical team was summoned to Court as Kanhaiya was seriously injured. It was reported that the Supreme Court had directed that the hearing be adjourned. Yet subsequent news reports stated that a long hearing took place and Kanhaiya wrote out/ handed over a hand-written statement to the Court. And finally it was reported that Kanhaiya had been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. So he will not be seen again for 14 days.
Almost immediately after this, the Commissioner of Police B S Bassi appeared on TV and first denied that Kanhaiya had been attacked. According to Mr Bassi, Kanhaiya was merely jostled. However, the Delhi Police was strangely no longer keen to retain custody of the injured Kanhaiya and Bassi indicated that the Police would not oppose his bail.
Meanwhile the news that Kanhaiya was seriously injured with internal injuries continued to be flashed.
After this Bassi was again heard stating on TV that he could not say how serious the assault on Kanhaiya was and that the nature of the assault would become clear only after an assessment of the seriousness of the injuries suffered by Kanhaiya.
No one has been arrested or detained for assaulting Kanhaiya.
According to versions floating around on twitter, in the news and on TV, one or more persons entered the court-room where Kanhaiya was present surrounded with a large posse of policemen and attacked him in their presence. Really are we expected to believe this? Someone could enter the court-room and attack Kanhaiya in front of this large police presence, and cause him serious and internal injuries and the police did not even arrest those persons?
NDTV live TV reports from Patiala House showed two men one of whom claimed that he had seen lawyers assaulting Kanhaiya. How did this man see this when entry to the court-room was restricted? Who is this man? Was he lying? We do not know.
Another reporter was on the news saying that a lawyer Surinder Tyagi was seen approaching the policemen stationed outside the court-room and boasting about having assaulted Kanhaiya, with the police doing nothing. Once again this seems implausible, unless this was a part of the drama being played out.
Some completely unverified statements were spread on twitter that Kanhaiya had identified the lawyers who had attacked him and that Kanhaiya told the Judge that the police had tried to save him.
Note that all these stories being spread are from unspecified and unverified sources. No statement has come from either the Judge, or the Police or lawyers who represented Kanhaiya.
We don’t even know who was present in Court when the alleged assault happened and later when the hearing is stated to have taken place.
Were any journalists or Kanhaiya’s supporters present in Court at all since the Supreme Court had apparently directed at some point that the court-room be emptied out?
All we have are the facts that Kanhaiya Kumar was seriously injured in police custody and the visuals showing him entering the Patiala House Court compound today show that he was already injured. Prima facie it appears that Kanhaiya Kumar was beaten and tortured while in the custody of the Delhi Police.
A case of contempt of court against Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi is made out.
Read this - Less a high-ranking police officer, more a BJP muscle man: Ex-top cops flay Bassi's 'partisan attitude'
www.firstpost.com/india/less-a-high-ranking-police-officer-more-a-bjp-muscle-man-ex-top-cops-flay-bassi-partisan-attitude-2629860.html
He is hoping for a post retirement career.
Also read How We the People of India must respond to the recent #JNU incidents
A closer reading of the Supreme Court of India decision in Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar (1962) on the offence of sedition defined in Section 124A IPC
My refusal to be a nationalist does not make me anti-national - stand with #JNU & #KanhaiyaKumar
Was #JNU student leader and student union president Kanhaiya Kumar beaten and tortured in Delhi Police custody? This is what the evidence points to.
The facts - Kanhaiya Kumar was targeted and arrested on 13 February 2016 under an untenable sedition charge, though he is still to be formally charged. Kanhaiya Kumar has given speeches sharply critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ruling BJP government and the RSS. He gave one such speech on 12 February 2016 itself.
Kanhaiya has remained in police custody until today and today according to NDTV news reports he is seriously injured with grave internal injuries but there has been no official Government or Police press release or statement on his condition or on the nature of his injuries or indeed on the cause of these injuries.
Kanhaiya was produced in Patiala House Court on 15 February 2016. Video images of him flashed on TV showed him being escorted by police who were dragging him and preventing him from speaking to reporters while Kanhaiya was trying his best to do that. He looked uninjured in those visuals.
Kanhaiya was again produced in Court today and the visuals on NDTV today showing Kanhaiya Kumar being dragged and physically hauled into the Patiala House Court compound by Delhi Police show him as already badly injured. His face looked all swollen with his right eye swollen shut. His face was contorted in agony and pain. It looks as if he has been beaten and tortured in police custody. A policeman placed his hand over and covered Kanhaiya's face when the cameras panned. The visuals did not show Kanhaiya walking on his own but he was instead being practically dragged and carried upright by a policeman much taller than him and 5 other policemen pulling him or holding him.
So what happened to Kanhaiya? Was he tortured in police custody? Prima facie this appears to be the case.
Kanhaiya has now been remanded to judicial custody and has been sent to Tihar jail for 14 days.
Now note that in the normal course Kanhaiya should have been brought to court both today and on the 15th accompanied by police but walking on his own. He should have been allowed to speak to the media or we would have heard him shouting out to the media. He is still not charged and therefore is not an accused. We would have expected a public statement from his lawyer or been at least told by the media who was representing him. Kanhaiya would have been able to speak to his supporters, students and faculty from JNU.
Instead look at the very convenient sequence of events which have allegedly played out all courtesy of the Delhi Police.
Lawyers with BJP ties were allowed to riot and assault Kanhaiya’s supporters and journalists in Court before the hearing on 15 February. As a result, the judicial hearing could not take place and was adjourned to today. No lawyer appeared or could appear for Kanhaiya on 15 February and his supporters including JNU students, faculty and alumni and journalists were unlawfully evicted by violent lawyers from the court-room before the hearing and before he was brought to court. So no one knows what happened in court on the 15th except what the police told the media. Kanhaiya was entitled to an open and public hearing with his supporters present but a hearing was denied to him on that day essentially because of police actions which failed to stop and which actually facilitated the violence.
Next we hear that a JNU alumni filed a petition before the Supreme Court on the 16th asking that the police be directed to provide adequate security for today’s hearing in Patiala House Court and to provide security to Kanhaiya as there was a threat to his life. This case was heard today morning by the Supreme Court which directed the police to ensure that there was no violence today and to provide security for Kanhaiya. The Supreme Court directed that 5 policemen and 5 journalists pre-selected by the Editor’s Guild would be present in Court. Only 2 supporters of Kanhaiya would be allowed to enter the court-room, whether it be family, friends or JNU supporters. 20 more journalists would be allowed to report from inside the court compound. The Supreme Court also directed the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court to be present inside the Patiala House court-room. Once again an open public hearing was converted into a closed hearing with pre-screening of who could be present in court. In my view the Supreme Court was not correct in directing that only two supporters of Kanhaiya could enter the court-room.
What followed was a farcical drama enacted by the Delhi Police. It failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s directions and failed to secure the Patiala House Court premises. Mobs of lawyers including lawyers who rioted on the 15th were allowed to shout slogans, intimidate, assault and beat up people, carry lathis, march, block entrances, fight and even throw stones in the Court premises and outside it.
The farce played out on TV in real time and the Supreme Court apparently at some point directed that the court-room be evacuated.
Then the Delhi Police story goes that Kanhaiya was produced in court and somehow while he was still in police custody and surrounded by policemen, some lawyers managed to assault him inside the court-room. This news was flashed on TV. No further visuals of Kanhaiya were seen. According to TV news a medical team was summoned to Court as Kanhaiya was seriously injured. It was reported that the Supreme Court had directed that the hearing be adjourned. Yet subsequent news reports stated that a long hearing took place and Kanhaiya wrote out/ handed over a hand-written statement to the Court. And finally it was reported that Kanhaiya had been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. So he will not be seen again for 14 days.
Almost immediately after this, the Commissioner of Police B S Bassi appeared on TV and first denied that Kanhaiya had been attacked. According to Mr Bassi, Kanhaiya was merely jostled. However, the Delhi Police was strangely no longer keen to retain custody of the injured Kanhaiya and Bassi indicated that the Police would not oppose his bail.
Meanwhile the news that Kanhaiya was seriously injured with internal injuries continued to be flashed.
After this Bassi was again heard stating on TV that he could not say how serious the assault on Kanhaiya was and that the nature of the assault would become clear only after an assessment of the seriousness of the injuries suffered by Kanhaiya.
No one has been arrested or detained for assaulting Kanhaiya.
According to versions floating around on twitter, in the news and on TV, one or more persons entered the court-room where Kanhaiya was present surrounded with a large posse of policemen and attacked him in their presence. Really are we expected to believe this? Someone could enter the court-room and attack Kanhaiya in front of this large police presence, and cause him serious and internal injuries and the police did not even arrest those persons?
NDTV live TV reports from Patiala House showed two men one of whom claimed that he had seen lawyers assaulting Kanhaiya. How did this man see this when entry to the court-room was restricted? Who is this man? Was he lying? We do not know.
Another reporter was on the news saying that a lawyer Surinder Tyagi was seen approaching the policemen stationed outside the court-room and boasting about having assaulted Kanhaiya, with the police doing nothing. Once again this seems implausible, unless this was a part of the drama being played out.
Some completely unverified statements were spread on twitter that Kanhaiya had identified the lawyers who had attacked him and that Kanhaiya told the Judge that the police had tried to save him.
Note that all these stories being spread are from unspecified and unverified sources. No statement has come from either the Judge, or the Police or lawyers who represented Kanhaiya.
We don’t even know who was present in Court when the alleged assault happened and later when the hearing is stated to have taken place.
Were any journalists or Kanhaiya’s supporters present in Court at all since the Supreme Court had apparently directed at some point that the court-room be emptied out?
All we have are the facts that Kanhaiya Kumar was seriously injured in police custody and the visuals showing him entering the Patiala House Court compound today show that he was already injured. Prima facie it appears that Kanhaiya Kumar was beaten and tortured while in the custody of the Delhi Police.
A case of contempt of court against Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi is made out.
Read this - Less a high-ranking police officer, more a BJP muscle man: Ex-top cops flay Bassi's 'partisan attitude'
www.firstpost.com/india/less-a-high-ranking-police-officer-more-a-bjp-muscle-man-ex-top-cops-flay-bassi-partisan-attitude-2629860.html
He is hoping for a post retirement career.
A closer reading of the Supreme Court of India decision in Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar (1962) on the offence of sedition defined in Section 124A IPC
My refusal to be a nationalist does not make me anti-national - stand with #JNU & #KanhaiyaKumar
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