SC to examine CDs of Ramdev crackdown at Ramlila Maidan

Expressing dissatisfaction with the police report regarding the suspected assault by the cops on several followers of yoga teacher Baba Ramdev, the Supreme Court has decided to watch the video footage showing lathi charge by police on the innocent people at the Ramlila ground during the wee hours on June 5 last.

An anguished bench of justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said it must be ensured that such incidents do not recur.

Judges said they would the two-hour video recording of the entire incident on August 5 at 4.15 pm. However, the court refused to entertain the plea made by Baba’s counsel Ram Jethmalani to make Union home minister P Chidambaram a party to the case.
He had accused that the police assaulted the men, women and children at the behest of Chidambaram.

Judges said the court doesn’t want to expand the ambit of the present case as their entire focus is to examine the circumstances which led to the June incident. They said court has not made the home ministry a party at this stage.

Dismayed at the police excesses, the court warned that “Innocent persons should not be beaten up by whosoever”.

At an earlier hearing, judges had questioned the Delhi police for not registering an FIR on the complaint of the yoga guru’s followers against the alleged “atrocities” committed by the cops.

Delhi police commissioner BK Gupta in an affidavit defended the police action and refuted the allegation of excesses against the helpless people.