Delhi Police stick to its guns;justifies crackdown on Ramdev

Delhi, Jun 17: After the huge public outcry over the brutal midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters at the Ram Lila grounds during the course of his fast-against corruption, the Delhi Police had to face some real tough questions. After the Supreme Court took suo moto cognizance of the brutality on innocent supporters, the Delhi police is all set to file its reply on Friday.

The Delhi Police still seem to be adamant and justifying their stand saying that Baba Ramdev used the protest stage to instigate supporters and they had acted in retaliation after the assembled supporters started pelting stones at them. The formal report by the Delhi Police will be filed in the Supreme Court later in the afternoon on Friday.

The apex court had set a deadline of Jun 20, but had to submit the same on Friday since Jun 18 and 19 are holidays. The court had issued notices to Union home secretary GK Pillai and Delhi Police chief BK Gupta seeking the circumstance that led to the crackdown and later eviction of Ramdev and his supporters from the protest site. The Delhi Police had denied lathicharge on supporters in spite of videos aired by media channels showing otherwise.

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice BS Chauhan and Justice Swatantar Kumar is hearing the case. An anonymous source was quoted as saying, "Evidence suggests that most people were injured due to stampede, not because of lathicharge. But the timing of the crackdown is odd and the Delhi Police is finding it difficult in justifying that. Choosing 1am to disperse the sleeping crowd was absurd."

OneIndia News