NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to probe deeper into the circumstances leading to the June 4 police action to evict people, who had thronged the Ramlila grounds to support yoga guru Ramdev pressing for action against black money.
The Delhi Police's affidavit had justified the action saying Ramdev breached rules by taking permission to conduct a yoga camp and then converting it to a satyagraha. It had also said that there were intelligence inputs about a threat to the yoga guru.
A bench of Justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar wondered as to why the police allowed it to go on for three days and suddenly decided to use force to evict Ramdev and his followers. "No affidavit by any respondent clarifies what happened between June 1 and 3. That itself will show whether the action on June 4 was justified," it said.
The court did not approve use of force either. "As policemen you are not expected to use tear-gas shells or water cannons in a closed tent. Was it a proper exercise," asked the bench and gave the Delhi Police time till July 18 to file a detailed affidavit.
"Was it not true that at 11.30pm when people were sleeping, you resorted to lathicharge and videos show one of your DCP kicking a person," the court said. Did the police facilitate the aggrieved people to lodge a complaint against policemen, it asked.
The court also asked the Union home secretary and the Delhi chief secretary to file their affidavits explaining the reason behind the police action.
Appearing for Ramdev's Bharatiya Swabhiman Trust, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani was buoyed by the court's remarks and pressed for a notice to home minister P Chidambaram.
"There was no order of externment on that night (June 4), when Baba Ramdev was removed from Delhi to Dehradun. Chidambaram must be called upon to explain when and why this decision was taken," he said.
This met with stiff resistance from senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for Delhi Police. He said the court should not enter a political arena while examining the issue.
The bench said the primary issue being dealt by it was the conduct of Delhi Police. "We will go into only that much of background which is necessary for the case," it said.
No comments:
Post a Comment