A court here has directed the Delhi Police to supply video footage of the midnight crackdown on yoga guru Ramdev’s rally at Ramlila Maidan in June 2011 while the case has failed to reach even the stage of framing of charges.
The magisterial court told the police that the DVD copies of media coverage, on which the police had been relying, be supplied to the accused by the next date of hearing. Earlier also the court had passed similar orders but the police had refused to supply the footage on one ground or another.
Advocate Harshit Jain, who is appearing for Hare Ram and Arun Rana, two of the 11 Ramdev’s men accused in the case, said the police has made up a case and filed a charge sheet on the basis of the footage of the incident it has collected from the news channels covering Ramdev’s rally.
“The police have been saying that the video footage reveals it was Ramdev’s men who acted violently. Now we have been demanding the copy but in vain and the case is still pending at initial stages. It is at the stage of charge for long,” he said.
Mr. Jain said Ramdev’s men accused in the case have to come for court hearing from far off places and non-cooperation from police in supplying the material it has based its case on is not correct.
It was in June 2012, a year after the incident, that two charge sheets were filed in the case after the Supreme Court told the Delhi Police to complete the probe and file a charge sheet. As many as 11 of Ramdev’s men and six police personnel have been separately charge sheeted in the case. The cops accused in the case are Sub-Inspector Sushil Kumar, Head Constable Vijender and Constables Ravi, Dinesh, Tejinder and Krishan. They have been charge-sheeted under Section 336 (endangering life and personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code.
They have been accused of using excessive force and lathi-charging the protesters without their superiors giving an order to do so.
Baba Ramdev’s men who have been named in the Delhi Police charge sheet are Ravi Naudiyal, Arun Singh Rana, Yogendra Arya, Sarvamitra, Prem, Surinder Singh, Bhagirath, Hariom, Ram Naresh and Ravindra and one other. All of them have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for rioting, using arms, unlawful assembly, obstructing policemen from discharging their official duty, injuring them and causing mischief.
