They chose to court arrest: cops

It started with five police officers reaching Anna Hazare’s temporary abode at Supreme Enclave in Mayur Vihar Phase I early on Tuesday morning.

It started with five police officers reaching Anna Hazare’s temporary abode at Supreme Enclave in Mayur Vihar Phase I early on Tuesday morning. When they apprised the 73-year-old activist that he would be arrested if he stepped out of the building, he did not pay heed.

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Minutes later, Hazare and his key aide Manish Sisodia were whisked away to the Gazetted Officer’s (GO) mess of the Delhi Police in their Innova car as hundreds of policemen scrambled to clear the route.

“Since the number of his supporters outside the GO’s mess was increasing and was likely to threaten the law and order situation, we transported him to the office of DCP West and produced him before the special executive magistrate three hours later,” said a senior police officer.

Delhi Police Commissioner BK Gupta said, “We gave them (Team Anna) several options as far as venues were concerned and made many concessions on the duration of the gathering, but they refused to sign the undertaking and chose to court arrest.”

Around 8pm, even as they began the process of freeing the 1,500 people detained during the day, the Delhi Police wrote to Tihar if Hazare and his aides could be released.