New Delhi: Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday tried to play down police inaction over the scuffle at Delhi's Patiala House court.
"Was there a murder?" Rijiju shot back in a CNN-IBN interview when asked about why the Delhi police were yet to take action against the attackers.
This comes a day after a group, including a BJP MLA, were caught on camera assaulting journalists as well as students and teachers of JNU who had come for a bail hearing in the sedition case.
During the interview, Rijiju also tried to change the topic saying, "Come to the more serious issue. Don't discuss about scuffle which police will take note of."
Here are excerpts from the interview:
CNN-IBN: Look at the irony, there were slogans raised in JNU -- police acted, they arrested the JNUSU president right on that day.
Kiren Rijiju: What slogans. That I'm saying. What slogans?
CNN-IBN: But ultimately there were slogans. Here people are beating, running after journalists, snatching their phones away. There is video available of your MLA thrashing another human being on the roads and yet your police chief says "We will look at this matter. It is a minor scuffle."
Kiren Rijiju: No, no. Who is saying that?
CNN-IBN: Your police chief Mr BS Bassi on record said "This is a minor scuffle."
Kiren Rijiju: But there was a murder? I don't know. But I'm sure that police will take action. I have not gone into detail of that particular incident. What I'm saying there may be physical fight, it will not amount to sedition. There may be issues of scuffle, there may be something, there may be some heinous crime. There are different layers of law as per the intensity of the particular crime. Police will take action, I'm nobody to tell the police that book the person under this law.
CNN-IBN: My colleagues who were there at Patiala House court yesterday told me that they were there doing their job just as your people were doing their job yet they were assaulted by these lawyers who called them anti-national because they were covering the JNU student. And the policemen just stood there quietly. Will you not ask police for lack of action?
Kiren Rijiju: There has to be action based on the facts. There is no denying on that but please come to the more serious issue. Don't discuss about scuffle which police will take note of. Law should be maintained. The law should be respected. Nobody will overlook the provisions of the law when the action is to be taken.
Comments
0 comment