Fighting broke out on Wednesday at New Delhi’s Patiala House court, hearing a case against a left-wing student leader accused of sedition, a charge that has sparked protests across university campuses and criticism the government is curtailing free speech.
Kanhaiya Kumar, head of the student union at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was rushed from a car through a gate into the court by police officers protecting him with a riot shield.
He was later remanded in custody by the court until March 2.
Lawyers chanting nationalist slogans earlier barged into the compound and threw stones at reporters, defying a Supreme Court order banning protests after a punch-up at a hearing on Monday.
Wednesday’s remand hearing was briefly adjourned as the Supreme Court rushed a team of commissioners to investigate, after lawyers for Kumar said he had been attacked inside the court premises.
“A person has come dressed as a lawyer and beaten him up inside the court premises today,” said defence lawyer Vrinda Grover. “The police couldn’t do anything, it’s a complete violation of the Supreme Court order.”
Kumar told the court he was manhandled on the way in and lost his shoes in the process. “I was rebuked, I was attacked,” he said.
Kumar, 28, was arrested at a student rally last week held to commemorate the anniversary of the execution of a Kashmiri separatist for his role in an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001.
Supporters of Kumar, a member of the leftist All India Students’ Federation (AISF) that has a Soviet hammer and sickle as its logo, deny he made incendiary remarks.
National anger
The case has triggered the biggest nationwide protests by students in a quarter of a century and a tough response from supporters of the nationalist government who say the actions against Kumar are justified.
The opposition Congress party and communist leaders have rallied behind Kumar and his AISF in its standoff with the pro-BJP student union, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
As protests have escalated, the chief of Delhi police faces accusations of taking political orders and failing to investigate alleged violence by nationalists loyal to Modi.
In one case, BJP lawmaker OP Sharma attacked a communist politician on the street outside the courthouse on Monday in an incident caught on television.
Some commentators and legal experts fault the government for exploiting the colonial-era sedition law to silence its opponents, when it should instead have left college rectors to manage what they say is no more than exuberant student debate.
