Male Delhi Cops Hit Me, Other Lawyers for Trying to Meet Detainees

Video Editor: Deepthi Ramdas

I, with other members of Indian Civil Liberties Union (ICLU), went to Jagatpuri Police Station on Wednesday, 26 February evening, after the organisation received an SOS call.

“We received an SOS from people at Khureji Khas that the protest site is being attacked by police officers, lathicharged and a few people, with several minors, were being detained.”

Abhisht Hela, Advocate, ICLU

So, a team of ICLU lawyers reached Jagatpuri Station and requested the police officers to let them meet the detainees by filing an application under Section 41(d) CrPC. They refused, giving a receiving, and saying no senior official was at the police station and they should wait.

We didn’t even know how many people had been detained. We were there for about two hours. We were just waiting there, trying to negotiate with the police officers.

While all this was going on, one of the police officers started recording. We could clearly see he was recording a video. That he was making a video of female lawyers made us angry and we demanded he delete the video.

Another cop came in and they started pushing and shoving us. I was trying to record what was going on so I could have that as footage. One of the cops came and snatched my phone. When I screamed, they gave me my phone back.

Then, they started hitting us with lathis and the sticks they carry.

I tried to record the on-goings when a male cop who was double my size hit me across the face.

However, I wasn’t the only one who had been slapped. Many other lawyers, including Anas Tanwir, who heads ICLU, were hit with lathis and female lawyers were shoved, hit and pushed by male cops. In the chaos, female cops were present too, and male cops continued to hit female lawyers.

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