Kanhaiya not attacked in court, Bassi insists

Delhi's outgoing police chief B.S. Bassi on Thursday denied that JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar was attacked at the Patiala House Court here.

Despite photographs showing a suspected lawyer pulling Kanhaiya Kumar's hair in the court on Wednesday, Bassi insisted that the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) was not assaulted.

"(I) deny that Kahaniya was assaulted, my officers are denying this, medical examination has been done," Bassi told CNN-IBN.

The police chief, who retires on February 29, said Kanhaiya Kumar was guilty of sedition and that the police had enough material to prove this.

Kanhaiya Kumar, from the CPI-affiliated All India Students Federation (AISF), has been accused of shouting anti-national slogans at a meeting in the campus on February 9. He has denied the charge.

Asked would not "half of Kashmir's population ... be liable for sedition" if slogan shouting amounted to sedition, Bassi said: "I'm concerned about Delhi."

He said the lawyers accused of assaulting journalists at the Patiala House Court on Monday were called by the police but they did not respond to the summons.

"If they co-operate with us, we see what action has to be taken under the law. If they don't co-operate we examine other options, most probably move the court to issue an arrest warrant."

Asked why police did not act against lawyers and BJP legislator O.P. Sharma after seeing media photographs when this was done in the case of Kanhaiya Kumar, Bassi denied he was guilty of double standards.