New Delhi: The midnight crackdown on Ramdev
and his followers at the Ramlila ground during their protest
against corruption was a result of "irresponsible" behaviour
of the yoga guru's running away from the venue and leaving his
supporters who resorted to unprovoked violence, Delhi Police
told the Supreme Court on Monday.
"Ramdev Baba jumped down and left the stage, leaving it
to a few of his supporters who started hurling stones towards
the police," advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the police,
told a bench of justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar.
When the bench said perhaps the stone-pelting started
after police had lobbed tear gas shell at the venue, the
advocate said it happened after Ramdev's followers indulged in
violence.
Delhi Police claimed there was not many people left after
Ramdev went away from the place and aroud 200 of his followers
had climbed on the stage and pelted stones at security
personnel.
"Police did not have the intention to evict and the
situation was under control for two hours (before violence)",
he said adding tear gas was used after water canon to disperse
the erring people failed.
Earlier also on November 25, Delhi Police had blamed for
the "entire mess" on the yoga guru saying he should take the
"responsibility" for it.
The police had also justified the involvement of Home
Minister P Chidambaram for maintaining law and order
at the venue saying "malafide" cannot be attributed to him as
he was obviously "worried" when the gathering exceeded the
capacity and his action was "constitutionally permissible".
PTI
First Published: Monday, November 28, 2011, 22:10