Delhi Police denies excessive use of force during protest: '5k cops tried to manage 30k+ protesters'
Here's the latest protest news from across India:
The Delhi Police has defended its use of force against student protesters during the July 20 “ Sansad Chalo ” protest march, telling the Supreme Court that it resorted to a “graded” response only after the gathering ceased to remain peaceful, with sections of the crowd breaching multiple layers of barricades and attempting to move towards Parliament.
Adding to this, A police personnel fires tear gas shells to disperse activists and supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) during a protest demanding the resignation of India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged NEET examination irregularities in New Delhi on July 20. (AFP) In a counter-affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, deputy commissioner of Police Sachin Sharma shared that the allegation of excessive force was unsustainable given the scale of the gathering, claiming that about 5,000 police personnel were deployed to manage more than 30,000 protesters spread across nearly three kilometres. The police shared that the ensuing confrontation left more than 240 police and uniformed personnel and around 200 protesters/public persons injured.
Meanwhile, The affidavit has been filed in response to petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into alleged police excesses and is intended to serve as a common response in four connected petitions. The matter is scheduled to come up before the Chief Justice of India-led bench on Tuesday.
Notably, The police shared its personnel initially attempted to regulate and contain the gathering, but the situation deteriorated after protesters allegedly breached successive barricades and moved towards Parliament despite there being no permission for a Parliament march.
As per the latest buzz, The affidavit contends that the gathering consequently assumed the character of an unlawful assembly and that the attempt to proceed towards Parliament was itself unlawful.
In further updates, The police has also sought to counter the petitioners’ reliance on photographs, video clips and media and social-media reports, saying these materials were selective, incomplete and not independently verified and therefore presented only one side of the events without capturing the police’s efforts to control the situation.
On top of that, On the allegation that police personnel used lathis fitted with nails, the affidavit says that examination of the available videos showed one solitary instance of such an object, but claims it was in the hands of a protester and not a police officer.
The police further disputes the description of the object as a nail-studded police lathi, saying it was a stick carrying the National Flag. It maintains that lathis form part of permissible crowd-control equipment and were used only to contain groups of protesters who, according to the police, had begun attacking personnel.
Source: Hindustan Times