6-member panel submits report on Patiala House court violence to Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The 6-member committee of senior lawyers, which rushed to the Patiala House courts to report on yesterday's violence, today submitted its report to the Supreme Court even as one of its members Rajeev Dhawan alleged "collusion" between police and the attackers.

The report was submitted in a sealed envelope to the bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice A M Sapre but the Delhi Police counsel Ajit K Sinha, who was part of the lawyers team, refused to sign it without reading it.

After a bunch of lawyers in open defiance of the apex court orders attacked JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and some journalists, the court deputed the lawyers team including Dhawan, Kapil Sibal, Dushyant Dave and Haren Rawal to report on the ground situation at the Patiala House complex.

Sinha said that he was asked by Rawal, former additional Solicitor General to sign the report which he declined saying he would only do so after fully reading it.

"I said I can't sign without reading the report. He (Raval) said you sign it," Sinha told a Bench comprising Justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre.

His response came after Raval told the bench that "he said he will not see it and not sign." Raval termed Sinha's words as "too scandalous".

Raval, who placed the report in sealed cover along with the pen drive containing mobile clip of committee's visit to Patiala House court complex, said other five members of the panel - Dhawan, Dushyant Dave and advocate Prashant Bhushan and A D N Rao - have signed it.

Dhawan told the media outside the court that "I have no difficulty in my mind, there is police collusion. As we went inside, we were told that somebody who was not allowed by the Supreme Court to enter the court, that person entered, went out.

"Registrar General of the High Court said 'please stop that man, please arrest him'. There were 8-10 policemen but they didn't arrest him. If this is not collusion, I don't know what is."