MHA seeks report from police on Patiala court incident: Mehrishi

“I have spoken to the Delhi Police Commissioner and asked him to send a detailed report on the Patiala court incident today itself,” Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said.

Mehrishi’s remarks came hours after a group of lawyers assaulted journalists and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar when he was being produced at the Patiala House Courts. “If anyone violates law, action will be taken,” he said.

Asked about the attack on journalists on Monday, Mehrishi said investigation is going on into two FIRs registered in that connection. “Action will be taken as per law,” he said.

On Monday, journalists, students and teachers of JNU were attacked by people wearing lawyers’ black robes in Patiala House Courts complex.

On Tuesday, hundreds of journalists hit the streets, demanding action against those involved in beating up members of their fraternity in the court complex in police presence and sought the Supreme Court's intervention for protecting freedom of speech.

Meanwhile, various political parties have strongly condemned the JNU incident and the attack on mediapersons by lawyers. 

CPI(M) MP MB Rajesh has claimed that he had received threats and abusive calls after he came out in support of JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar. In a Facebook post, Rajesh criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Sangh Parivar for the arrest. Rajesh said he had first got a call from a person on Tuesday midnight, stating that he wanted to talk something important to him. The caller, identifying himself as Biju, wanted to know why he was “supporting anti-national and Pakistani forces”. Though he discontinued the conversation and switched off his mobile, the man called him repeatedly on his landline. He said the caller had been identified and he would file a police complaint soon.

A one-time BJP ally, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) has also came out in support of Kanhaiya Kumar. JD-U’s Legislative Council Neeraj Kumar on Wednesday visited his home in Begusarai district and said that “conspiratorial arrest” of Kanhaiya would prove to be the “undoing” of the BJP government at the Centre. 

Addressing a public meeting in Kanhaiya’s village, Kumar spoke in favour of the JNUSU president and demanded his immediate release.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on Monday said it was “a design” to impose the ideology of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on the nation and had claimed it was “like imposing Emergency” in the country. Senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and state minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui also came out in Kanhaiya’s support. “Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest is part of a conspiracy hatched by the RSS, BJP and ABVP,” Siddiqui alleged.

Moreover, BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, who has often taken a position at variance with the party’s stand, also came out in Kanhaiya’s support and called for his release soon. 

“Hope wish and pray that he’s released soon, sooner the better...,” he said, adding that Kumar has said nothing anti-national, contradicting his party s stand on the issue.