Bhawna Arora being taken away from the event at Chhatrasal Stadium. PTI
Stating that there was a clear security lapse by police during the rally where ink was thrown at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a Delhi court said if the CM is “ not safe” in the capital, one should wonder what will be the fate of ordinary citizens. It also said the CM was fortunate that the content of the bottle was ink and not acid.
The observations came Friday when the court granted bail to 26-year-old Bhawna Arora, who threw ink on Kejriwal at a rally January 17.
“… I am very pained to see the role of the Delhi Police. It is expected to be cognizant of the fact that whenever a Chief Minister or other dignitaries are addressing the public, such type of incidents are always bound to happen. Past incidents and history clearly provide experience for the same, but the police has not learnt anything from the past,” said Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Kumar Aggarwal.
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He added that police “did not behave responsibly” and that despite a “separate security wing” for the chief minister, they could not take “effective steps for his protection.
“…One may imagine what would have been the situation in case the bottle contained some corrosive substance such as acid etc, mixed with ink,” added the court.
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Delving in to the “security lapse” during the event, the court questioned how nothing could be detected by police during frisking. “I fail to understand how a bottle of ink could not be detected during frisking. This is a clear-cut case of security lapse on part of police, especially in the circumstances when a public gathering was being addressed in a walled stadium and not in an unfenced ground,” the judge added.
The court also raised concerns on the capital’s security and said the Delhi Police “should re-look” and “revisit” its system.
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“… Security of constitution authorities is the responsibility of the state. Police should re-look and revisit its system of providing security to them after learning from bad experiences in the past,” said the court said.
The court granted bail to Bhawna after she furnished a personal bond of Rs 10,000 with one surety of the like amount.
“No useful purpose shall be served by keeping the applicant behind bars… The applicant is a young woman. Her entire career is at stake and legislatures — keeping in view the dignity of women in the country — have already provided special concessions of bail,” the court added.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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Bhawna Arora being taken away from the event at Chhatrasal Stadium. PTI
