For the second time, some lawyers in Delhi assaulted journalists at the Patiala House court complex. The incident comes a day after many journalists walked in protest against the attack on Monday. It all started with two groups of lawyers clashing with each other before 28-year-old Kanhaiya Kumar, president of JNUSU was brought to the court complex.
A reporter with Firstpost.com was assulted by journalists. "Police just watched as I was beaten by lawyers", says Firstpost's Tarique Anwar
He was assaulted by lawyers after he got stuck between the two groups of lawyers. He was assaulted once he was seen clicking a photograph of the scuffle.
"There were two groups of lawyers. One was shouting slogans like Gaddaron ko bahar karo, and there was another group who supported the JNU student and were yelling 'Kanhaiya tum sangharsh karo hum tumhare saath hain.' I went inside and stood next to the police. I took out my phone to send an update to the office and saw the scuffle between the two groups. I took a photo when the group of lawyers protesting against Kanhaiya took my phone, deleted the photo and took me inside and assaulted me. All this happened in front of the Delhi police."
When I took a photo of the scuffle, the lawyers started beating me up. I can identify him: Tariq Anwar, Firstpost pic.twitter.com/8hrklnN7TV
— ANI (@ANI_news) February 17, 2016
Meenakshi Banja, the legal correspondent for Times Now was forcibly made to delete vidoes on her phone.
Sonal Mehrotra of NDTV reported that lawyer Vikram Chauhan who had lead the attacks on Monday continued to lead the protest at the court premises after the incident . Chauhan was previously summoned by Delhi Police after allegations surfaced that he carried out the assault on Monday. Vikram Chauhan was seen climbing the gate if the court, and leading a group of lawyers. In spite of the lawyer being captured on camera beating a man on Monday, he has not been arrested by the Delhi police.
Chauhan went on to defend Wednesday's assault.
"They are trying to beat us up and we don't even respond? People who said 'Pakistan Zindabad' have been made heroes & we are being called 'gundas'", he said to news agency ANI.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court asked Delhi Police to ensure safety in the court premises. The Supreme Court had also restricted the number of people inside the courtroom, allowing only five reporters and two supporters of the arrested students to attend the hearing.
JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar who was produced in court later was also attacked.
On Tuesday, a large group of journalists had marched protesting the assault by lawyers of the Patiala House court.
The attack on mediapersons and JNU students by lawyers outside and inside Patiala House court on Monday has been widely condemned by the journalist fraternity. A delegation of journalists that included journalists like Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Siddharth Varadarajan, Ravish Kumar, Suhasini Haidar, Sankarshan Thakur and Sagarika Ghose on Tuesday took part in the march.
A memorandum was submitted to the Supreme Court by the media asking the court to punish those lawyers and others responsible for the violence.