SC to examine swoop on Ramdev aides

The Supreme Court on Monday will examine an affidavit submitted by the Delhi Police, regarding the pre-dawn crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters at the Ramlila Ground.

The Supreme Court on Monday will examine an affidavit submitted by the Delhi Police, regarding the pre-dawn crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters at the Ramlila Ground. In the affidavit, the police have denied the allegations that it had used force to evict Ramdev and his aides from the site.

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A bench of justices P Sathasivam and AK Patnaik is also likely to take up a petition filed by advocate Ashok Agarwal, seeking direction to the city police commissioner to deposit the 42 CCTV cameras allegedly seized from the site after the swoop.

In the affidavit, the city police have claimed that no force was used against the protesters, but eight teargas shells were fired on Ramdev's supporters after they turned violent and started pelting stones on the policemen.

Justifying its action, the police said the authorities had permitted Ramdev to use the ground only to hold a yoga camp and not for any other purpose.

The police said instead of holding a yoga camp, Ramdev was instigating the crowd of more than 20,000 people on the issue of corruption and black money.

The police filed the response following the apex court's direction, which took a suo motu cognizance of the crackdown and directed it to explain why it resorted to such an action against Ramdev and his supporters.

Advocate Agarwal said after the swoop, the police forcibly took away the hard disk and 42 CCTV cameras from Vipin Mittal's residence at Savitri Colony, Malviya Nagar Mittal is the owner of Sai Company that deals in CCTV cameras.