After the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the recent violent protests by Gurjjars, the community has now approached the apex court, alleging harassment by the Rajasthan Police.The Akhil Bhartiya Gurjjar Vikas Sansthan filed a petition in the Supreme Court today, which will come up for hearing on June 18. The plea alleges that policemen began harassing members of the community after notices were sent to the Directors General of Police of four states, including Delhi, during the bandh called by the Gurjjar community on June 4.Earlier, the Supreme Court had termed the violence a “national shame” and asked the police chiefs of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan to furnish their response on what action they had taken.The Gurjjars now want the Supreme Court to order a CBI inquiry into the week-long violence that occurred during the community’s agitation for Scheduled Tribe status. The petition also criticised the murder charges leveled against Gurjjar leader Kirorilal Bainsla, the man who led the agitation. It was alleged that the police and the state Governments in their “overzealousness” to comply with the apex court’s direction were registering cases even against those community members who were in no way involved in the agitation or the violence that followed. The apex court, while issuing notices to the states, had lamented that prima facie it appeared that the administration neither took any preventive steps nor action against the offenders who were responsible for the destruction of such properties. “As the electronic media shows, the offenders feel that they have done some very heroic or laudable thing because they show their beaming faces when the TV camera is focused on them,” the Bench had remarked.The court had said the incidents had created considerable hardship for the general public as it paralysed normal life.Meanwhile, the Gurjjar petition claimed that the acts of vandalism were the handiwork of certain vested interests and hence the matter should be investigated by an independent agency like the CBI.
