NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the city police for the assault on a tempo driver and his minor son in northwest Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar.
Noting that it was an “evidence of police brutality”, a division bench of Justices Jayant Nath and Najmi Waziri asked the Union Home Ministry and the city police to file a report within a week.
“How can any uniformed force do this? This would scare the citizens that the uniformed force is acting in this manner. Would create disquiet in the society. You (police) have to show you are with the citizens. That is what the citizens, including children, want,” it said.
The high court listed the matter for July 2 for further hearing after taking up the pleas seeking compensation to the victims of the incident and a court-monitored investigation in the incident.
While one petition was filed by Seema Singhal through two advocates, the other was filed by businessman Manjeet Singh Chugh. The court pulled up the Delhi Police, which said the case was transferred to the Crime Branch.
On Sunday, a minor incident of road rage turned resulted in some policemen assaulting auto-driver Sarabjeet Singh, who had threatened them with his ‘kirpan’. Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik has already submitted a report about the case to Union Home secretary Rajiv Gauba after it snowballed into a major political row in Delhi.
ALSO READ: Was only doing my duty, says ASI Yograj
The petitioner alleged barbaric, horrific and malafide use of power as the father-son duo were beaten up by sticks and pistol butts by several policemen after Sarabjeet’s Gramin Sewa auto brushed against a police vehicle.
The excessive force and brutality led to unrest amongst the general public at large who amassed in huge numbers in front of the Mukherjee Nagar police station, the petitioners said. With agency inputs