Why am I the villain, asks lawyer who led court attack
Advocate Vikram Chauhan is confused. After doing his duty as a good Indian citizen — ensuring that his courts are safe from slogans and students — he doesn’t understand why the media is painting him as a goon.
Advocate Vikram Chauhan is confused. After doing his duty as a good Indian citizen — ensuring that his courts are safe from slogans and students — he doesn’t understand why the media is painting him as a goon.
“Today there’s great confusion in me, I (was made into) the country’s biggest goon and mother India’s enemies given hero status in court,” he wrote in a Facebook post on February 16, a day after he led what turned into a violent attack against JNU students and journalists in Delhi’s Patiala House court complex.
He repeated the same to HT on the phone on Friday night. He added there was never any intention on his part of hurt anyone. Had the JNU students simply vacated the seats of “his” courtroom, the situation would have turned out different.
“I was even going to go to the district judge with an application requesting that (JNU students’ union president) Kanhaiya Kumar get the best legal representation so that there would be no doubts over his conviction at a later stage,” he added.
The son of an Army man, the Revari native did his LLB degree from Rohtak university and has been an advocate in Patiala House court complex for 13 years.
He, however, skirted a query on whether he would still defend his attack on Kumar if the student leader is found not guilty.
“Any good citizen of India would stand up against anti-national elements,” he said adding that before he is an officer of the law, he is a citizen of the nation that he must protect.
Stating that there is a dangerous situation across the nation, he added: “Have you seen Mewat? It’s a mini-Pakistan and all because of a handful of journalists.”
Though Chauhan has not gone into hiding, Delhi Police have failed to locate him so far.
He led a march at India Gate on Friday and photos of the rally are available on his Facebook with 100s of likes. Police was present at the march, but appeared not have found the lawyer.
To a query on why he has not answered the police summons, Chauhan said he will do what the District Court Bar Co-ordination Committee says.
