A vacation bench comprising Justice P Sathasivam and Justice A K Patnaik issued notice to Acharya Virendra Vikram, the President of the Delhi chapter of Bharat Swabhiman Trust, on the allegations and claims made by the Delhi Police. The apex court said it wants to hear the other side of the story after Delhi Police claimed in a reply that no atrocities were done on the supporters of Baba Ramdev who had gathered at the Ramila Maidan in the old quarters of Delhi.
“The Police Commissioner has claimed that there was on lathicharge on the crowd. Several policemen were also injured and most of the injured civilians have been discharged from the hospital. Let the affected people reply on that,” observed Justice Sathasivam while passing the order. Apex court has also asked the Trust that the permission was granted to them only for the Yoga camp then why was it converted into a political campaign.
The Supreme Court had issued sumo moto notice to the Delhi Police, Union Home secretary and chief secretary of Delhi, last week after newspapers reported that there were police atrocities to evict large number of people who had gathered at the Ramlila Maidan to support Baba Ramdev’s campaign demanding tough laws to curb flow and transaction of black money.
In response to the apex court notice, Delhi Police had refuted that any force was applied on the people. Instead, in a written reply, Delhi Police claimed Baba Ramdev himself was responsible for the stampede at the Ramlila Maidan. According to the police, there was security threat to Baba Ramdev. When the police went there to inform Baba about the intelligence input, he jumped in the crowd and started provoking people against the police and the government. Subsequently, there was a stamped in which people were injured.
Police claimed there was no lathicharge and people were injured due to stamped. When the police tried to control the crowd, people started pelting stones at the police. Finally, teargas shells were lobbed to disperse the crowd. The ground was meant only for the assembly of just 5,000 people but police suspected a crowd of nearly 100,000 the next morning.
Now the Supreme Court will hear the case on July 11 after getting response from the Swabhiman Trust.
