Another day, another scuffle

A little over 1 pm on Wednesday when a scuffle broke out in the Patiala House Courts Complex between two groups of lawyers, this reporter was present to witness the drama unfold in front of his eyes. Here is a first person account of what exactly happened:

A few minutes after 1 pm, at gate no 2, when I, along with a few other mediapersons, were waiting for Kanhaiya Kumar to be produced in the court, an attack on a group of lawyers was initiated by another group. Seeing the scuffle, I moved and entered inside the court where I saw some men in black coats were beating up a few other men wearing the same black coats. 

The group that initiated the attack was being led by Vikram Chauhan, a lawyer, who has not been arrested despite attacking people on Monday, and he was the same person who instigated  the chaos on Wednesday as well.

The assault by Chauhan’s group begun by calling the other group “a traitor” and “anti-national” following which they started roughing up other group members. Meanwhile, the group, who was being beaten up by Chauhan’s men, kept shouting slogans such as “Kanhaiya tum aage badho hum tumahare sath hain (Move ahead Kanhaiya, we are with you).” 

The assault by Chauhan’s group did not stop only at the lawyers. They were targeting anyone and everyone who tried to intervene or even click a photo of them. I took out my mobile phone to click a photo when the lawyers warned me of dire consequences and asked me to leave. I was about to comply with what I was just asked to do when another man presumably a lawyer, seemingly angry, pushed me and said: “Do not take photos or else I will beat you up.”

I was about to exit the court premise when I saw another journalist being brutally beaten up by a group of lawyers. 

Me and another fellow journalist rushed to the spot and urged them not to rough up my friend as we are from the media. However, our requests fell on deaf ears and they kept beating him up till be started bleeding. 

Despite cops being stationed in high numbers at the court premises, nothing seemed to stop the lawyers from taking the law in their own hands. The police, on the other hand, stood simply as mute spectators.