Scariest day of my life: First-person account of Patiala House Court assault
I went to the Patiala House Court on Monday to cover the session in which arrested JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who had allegedly been involved in anti-India protests on the campus, was to be produced in court. It turned out to be the scariest day of my life.
In horror, I saw fellow journalists being beaten up by an angry mob till they turned on me, demanded that I hand over my mobile phone so they can check if I was filming the violence. The police just silently watched. When I managed to wriggle out, I hid with a couple of reporters in the NIA court for 45 minutes thinking I would be safe there.
I was wrong. The mob soon arrived and abused us in front of the court staff.
It started from a text when I got to know a clash had broken out between JNU students and lawyers. Later, some people in the court seemed to suggest that the so-called lawyers had come prepared to "teach Kanhaiya a lesson". As I entered the court premise, I was told to not take out my phone as the mob was going after everyone who took out their phones, thinking they were recording the incident. I went inside the court of metropolitan magistrate Lovleen, where the hearing was about to start. Suddenly I saw senior journalist Amit Pandey being manhandled by the mob as they suspected him of video-recording the incident. He was dragged inside the court room and beaten up. I, along with another court reporter, tried to pull him away and pleaded to the mob to leave him. A cop stood right next to us and silently watched.
We shouted, "Police bulao, dekho kya ho raha hai [call the police]." but he stood there, looking helpless. The court staffers were watching the violence too. I took Pandey's phone and kept it with me. But someone in the mob had seen me slipping the phone inside my pocket. He allowed the other court reporter to go but stopped me. Four men threatened to beat me up. They even raised their hands, at which point I broke down. They pulled my jacket and asked me to give them the phone.
The very same police official said, "I will not let them touch you." But after a minute, he fell silent again. All this while, I thought they would not hit me because I was a woman. But I was wrong. I succumbed to their threat and surrendered the phone, and was escorted outside the court room.
I went towards the special cell court rooms, thinking I would be safe around strict security. Interestingly, the chaos took place amid high security which was beefed up because finance minister Arun Jaitley was personally appearing in a different case.
Then, along with a few journalists, we went to the district judge's court where we told court officials that we would want to report the matter to the judge. We were told that he was in his chamber attending a meeting.
After hiding there for a while, we heard the mob move towards the court where Jaitley was present. I decided to go close to the spot and heard one of them shouting, pointing at me, "Wo dekh, wo wahan khadi hai". I ran back inside the court room. After a while, the mob entered. Some of them were smoking inside the court.
This begs the question: Were all of them real lawyers or some were outside elements dressed in as black coats? We had not seen lawyers nonchalantly smoke inside the court.
They came and asked us to leave the court. We didn't, as a mob was waiting outside. After a while they left. I called on 100 to file a complaint, even then nothing happened.
We locked the main door from inside and waited. Suddenly, a young lawyer came looking for us. Initially, we thought that the mob is making another attempt to make us step out of the court. But the lawyer sneaked another reporter and me out of the court and took us into his chambers.
For more than 30 minutes, we were hiding in his chamber, with lights off, mobiles on silent. After escaping from the back gate of the court, I went to the Tilak Marg Police Station where other journalists who were heckled were also present. The lawyers chased us till there and asked if we were filing a police complaint.
I had never seen Delhi Police not coming to the rescue of people who were being harassed or beaten up.
Irrespective of my profession, I am a resident of Delhi, whose commissioner of police dismisses it as a minor incident. And I find that extremely disappointing.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)