CPI (M) demands Bassi's removal

With Delhi Police Commissioner B. S. Bassi rejecting reports that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students ' union president Kanhaiya Kumar was roughed up while being taken to the Patiala House, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Wednesday demanded his removal for playing the incident down.

She accused Bassi of giving patronage to hooligans and goons by trivializing the matter, and said that he was acting under the direct orders of Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

"Mr. Bassi has given direct patronage to a bunch of hooligans and goons, who in an unprecedented move, inside the court, not once but twice, today again inside the court, again attacked Kanhaiya. This is a custodial beating, these people need to be prosecuted and put in jail," she said.

 

"It is Delhi's police commissioner who is directing all this. He has to be removed, he is such a person that he is acting under direct guidance of this country's home minister," she added.

Taking potshots at right wing groups, Karat said the nation has not yet become a Hindu Rashtra.

"This country has, as yet, not been converted into a RSS Hindu Rashtra. There is still the Constitution, there are still the laws. Therefore, the police commissioner who has allowed all this not once but twice in two-days has no right to continue in office," she said.

Meanwhile, Bassi maintained that Kumar was not beaten up, but merely jostled, and praised the Delhi Police officers for effectively shielding Kumar from the crowd outside the court.

High drama was witnessed at the Patiala House Court earlier in the day where two groups of lawyers were seen raising slogans inside the court premises and beating up each other including journalists.

Earlier, hearing the matter the apex court condemned Monday's attack on journalists in the Patiala House Court complex in connection with the JNU row.

The Supreme Court earlier ordered Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi to ensure security to the accused and limit the number of journalists to be present inside the court room to five.