Kanhaiya Kumar, the JNU student's union President arrested for sedition, was attacked at a Delhi court.
Hours after shocking scenes of violence were witnessed for a second time this week at the Patiala House Court in Delhi, police commissioner BS Bassi mounted an extraordinary defence of his forces' ineptness in the handling of the situation.
Kanhaiya Kumar, the student accused of sedition after a controversial protest meeting at the Jawaharlal University last week, sustained injuries to his face, neck and legs. But in an exclusive interview to NDTV, Mr Bassi dismissed the incident.
"Kanhaiya was pushed and jostled but we delivered him safely to where he was supposed to be," Mr Bassi told NDTV on the sidelines of a Delhi police function. "We ensured the incident went off without a hitch."
When asked how he could use the term safely when Mr Kumar was nearly lynched, he said he "understood his concerns."
Two days ago, a group of lawyers led by Vikram Chauhan launched a pre-planned attack on journalists and JNU faculty in the same court, just as proceedings were to begin. In a repeat of the incident, Mr Chauhan led more lawyers into the court premises on Tuesday and attacked Mr Kumar, also intimidating journalists, in the presence of police personnel.
This, after the Supreme Court had laid down strict guidelines to the police to ensure law and order.
But Mr Bassi refused to accept a law-and-order failure at the court. He said using lathis and tear gas was the easy way out, but they avoided doing so because they wanted to avoid damage. He said in hindsight, he did the right thing.
It almost appeared that he was not keen to take on lawyers. "Lawyers are officers of court, not ordinary citizens," said Mr Bassi when asked why the mob couldn't be held back. "We couldn't stop proceedings in the court."
The Supreme Court took a different tone as it rushed a team of lawyers to Patiala House to assess the situation, but they too were attacked with stones and heckled by the crowd. Mr Bassi has been asked to give an explanation to the Supreme Court by Thursday.
Mr Bassi said that a case had been registered against the men identified in the attacks on Monday, including BJP Delhi legislator OP Sharma, but could do nothing about them still being at large. "They have been summoned. But I have to follow the process laid down in the law," he said.
When asked if he felt ashamed as Police Commissioner, he said "the aim was to avoid collateral damage." And that the police succeeded.