New Delhi: A six-member team of lawyers appointed by the Supreme Court on Wednesday submitted its status report to the apex court on the alleged violence at the Patiala House Court and said that the situation there is grim.
“We are shocked. There is atmosphere of terror at the Patiala House Court,'' the six-member SC delegation said in its findings.
''Small stones were thrown on us as well when we went there to asses the ground situation,'' the panel further said.
The panel told the apex court that the city police had miserably failed in maintaining law and order at the trial court.
The panel also said that JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been booked for sedition, was beaten up while he was brought inside court."
"We were abused and called agents of Pakistan," senior lawyer Rajiv Dhawan, who was part of the panel, told the highest court.
Importantly, the findings of the SC-appointed panel is contrary to the claims made by Delhi Police Chief BS Bassi, who had maintained that JNUSU chief was not attacked while he was being produced before the court here.
The Supreme Court had earlier appointed a team of six senior lawyers to go to Patiala House court to observe the situation there and report back.
The 6-member team of lawyers included Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhavan, Dushyant Dave, ADN Rao, Ajit Sinha and Harin Raval. The panel was asked to be given police protection while assessing the ground situation at Patiala House court.
The apex court had also said that it may appoint local commissioner to take stock of situation at Patiala House Court complex.
The SC also asked the counsel to tell Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi to take action against those indulging in violence irrespective of their profession.
The top court's order came after, a large group of men dressed in lawyers' robes today again barged into the Patiala House court complex and allegedly beat up a journalist and a student ahead of the hearing in the sedition case of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar.
The group, which could be seen raising slogans "Vande Mataram" and waving India's flag in the court premises, was led by Vikram Chauhan, one of the lawyers who had attacked JNU students and faculty on February 15.
