New Delhi, 20 August—As promised earlier this week, the Supreme Court today announced a high-powered five-member panel headed by retired apex court judge R Subhash Reddy to probe the allegations of police excesses on protesters on July 20 at Jantar Mantar here.
Besides Justice Reddy, the committee will comprise former Punjab and Haryana high court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, former Delhi high court Justice Shalinder Kaur, former CBI director Rishi Kumar Shukla and former Meghalaya DGP LR Bishnoi as its members.
Earlier on Tuesday, a top court bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Baghchi and V Mohana said that it would also direct the handing over of video footage and CCTV recordings of the violence during the July 20 protest march to the high-powered probe panel.
The July 20 protest march to Parliament, led by the Cockroach Janta Party, saw clashes between protesters and security personnel, including the Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF). Lathi charge, tear gas shells were used by the forces to disperse the crowds from moving towards the Parliament. Pellet guns were also allegedly used by the forces.
The Supreme Court’s probe committee formation comes just two days after the Delhi Police defended its use of force against protesters during the July 20 ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest march.
The Delhi Police told the apex court that it resorted to a “graded” response only after the gathering ceased to remain peaceful, with sections of the crowd breaching layers of barricades and trying to move towards Parliament.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Sharma said the allegation of excessive force was unsustainable, given the scale of the gathering. He claimed that about 5,000 police personnel were deployed to manage over 30,000 protesters across a radius of nearly three kilometres.
Additionally, the police said that the confrontation between police and protesters left over 240 cops and uniformed personnel, and around 200 public persons/protesters injured.
In its defence, the police said that use of lathis forms part of permissible crowd-control equipment, adding that they were used only to contain a group of protesters who, according to them, had begun attacking security personnel.
Police also claimed that 2,873 persons at the protest site had criminal cases registered against them, including allegations related to murder, attempt to murder, dacoity, rape and offences under the POCSO Act.
However, the Delhi Police told the apex court that the question of whether the force used was excessive can appropriately be examined by the committee proposed to be constituted by the Court, and that it would cooperate with such an exercise.
Veteran Journalist and Political Commentator
