Kanhaiya Kumar, journalists again attacked

In another day of extraordinary events, JNU students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar and some journalists were attacked in a court complex here by rowdy lawyers in brazen defiance of the orders of the Supreme Court, which was forced to step in. Despite instructions by the apex court to ensure security at the Patiala House Court, where violent men in black robes had attacked journalists on Monday, Delhi Police failed to prevent the attack on Kumar, accused of sedition, was brought for remand proceedings. On Monday too, journalists were attacked by such elements. The Supreme Court had earlier in the day directed Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi to ensure proper and adequate security at the court complex and also asked the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court to be present there. All that was of no consequence as the rowdy lawyers punched and kicked Kumar, who was escorted by a posse of policemen from the vehicle to court. A medical examination later revealed that he had suffered abrasions on the face and both the legs. Even as the violence was being perpetrated in the court complex, senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, Indira Jaising and Prashant Bhushan informed the top court that a tense situation was building up at the Patiala House where a group of lawyers and others were resorting to violence. Acting swiftly, the apex court appointed a team of six senior members of the bar to proceed to the Patiala House to report on the situation. The team comprised Sibal, Rajeev Dhawan, Dushyant Dave, A D N Rao, Ajit K Sinha and Haren Rawal. The lawyers team rushed to Patiala House under heavy police escort and had to wade through an angry mob of lawyers who showered abuses on them. They reached the Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen's court just as the proceedings had wound up but they talked to Kumar. Lovleen had remanded Kumar to judicial custody till March 2 but the accused had to spend three more hours in the court room as the belligerent lawyers laid siege outside. Late in the evening, he was taken to Tihar jail where he will be lodged under heavy security.