The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the authorities to preserve all CCTV footage, videography and other relevant documents related to the alleged brutality displayed by the police during the Kakroach Janata Party protests in the national capital. The court issued the order on two petitions filed by a court-supervised special investigation team to probe the incident and sent notices to the central government and the Delhi Police.
A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Tejas Carrier directed Delhi Police or the central government to preserve the entire data as per the SOPs issued by it. The petitioner alleged excessive force against the police and demanded registration of complaint against the officers involved, submission of their employment documents and disciplinary action. September has been fixed for the next hearing in this regard
Senior advocate N Hariharan, who appeared for the petitioners, argued that the protest at Jantar Mantar started peacefully but later the police resorted to extreme brutality. He alleged that the police did not give any warning or blow the whistle before resorting to force and that the act was unethical. According to the senior lawyer, unarmed protesters were brutally beaten, women protesters were tortured and more than ninety people were injured. He ordered a thorough investigation into the incident and requested the court to register charges against the officials who could be identified. Similarly, senior advocate Vikas Singh argued that despite the increase in the number of protesters on July 20, the march was peaceful and the authorities themselves did not allege that the protesters had resorted to violence. He claimed that the police attacked the protestors without provocation along with several people in plain clothes.
Another senior lawyer, Gopal Shankaranarayanan told the court that several persons involved in the police operation were not in police uniform. He accused Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sandeep Lamba of physically assaulting a woman standing by and asked the court to summon the officer and make him accountable. He said he had examined hundreds of videos of additional forces and claimed that women, mothers and family members were also subjected to indiscriminate tear gas, lathicharge and physical abuse. He emphasized the need for judicial intervention to prevent such behavior from becoming commonplace in future.
The Delhi Police, meanwhile, opposed the petitions and claimed in court that the protests were not peaceful and the videos showed injuries to policemen. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma for the Center and Senior Advocate SV Raju for the Authority opposed the petitions. Raju argued that the crowd went out of control and pelted stones at the police. He claimed that the applications were submitted for the purpose of seeking publicity based on the selected social media videos without concealing the information. Noting that the injured persons themselves did not approach the court, he advised them to approach the Magistrate with the legal remedy available under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and observed that there was no need to issue notices.
However, after hearing the arguments of both the sides, the bench observed that this is not a single or isolated person incident. The court made it clear that if this had been an isolated incident, the argument of the police that the victims could file a private case before the magistrate would have been acceptable. It remains to be seen what the police will do next based on the court’s order and what turn the matter takes in the September 11 hearing.