New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday that his government was with all the AAP activists and other protestors who were badly beaten up during a demonstration against the police some three days ago.
“The government is with you. We will explore all options,” the chief minister told a group of 35-40 young people, many of whom had suffered fractures in their hands or legs because of what they said was “merciless thrashing” by police personnel.
“We have to fight injustice, and we will. Don’t worry,” Kejriwal added.
Present at the meeting was noted lawyer Indira Jaising, who said Delhi Police commissioner B.S. Bassi would have to take responsibility for what happened on July 21 day.
“Bassi is a commander of the police force. He can’t shirk his responsibility,” she said.
Several of those at the meeting gave detailed descriptions of police brutality that followed the protest against the brutal murder of a teenager at Anand Parbat.
One man who had a sling on his left hand said that police personnel dragged AAP activists into the police station and assaulted them in the most brutal manner.
“The policemen kept telling us to confess that Kejriwal had paid us money to stage this demonstration,” he said. “When we refused, saying we had come on our own accord, the policemen resumed beating up.”
Similar accounts were given by several young men and women in the conference hall of the Delhi Secretariat.
Two men lifted their T-shirts and showed the deep gashes – blue and black in colour – behind their chest and their lower back.
Speaking on the occasion, AAP leader Dilip Pandey reiterated that a police bus had tried run over him when he was speaking to journalists outside the Rajendra Nagar police station.
“It was a matter of one second. Had I not been pushed out of range by my activists, I would not be alive today.
“The funny thing is that instead of registering my FIR against the police driver, police is trying to frame an FIR against me.”