Delhi Protests: Supreme Court summons senior Delhi police officer over alleged assault on women journalists

On to the top story at this hour, the Supreme Court has sought the presence of a senior Delhi police officer to explain allegations that women journalists were assaulted while covering the recent SIR protests in the national capital, signalling judicial scrutiny of the alleged obstruction of media personnel performing their professional duties. Chief Justice of India Suryakant has made the observation of senior advocate Indira Jai Singh mentioned a petition seeking safeguards for journalists reporting from protest sites. with particular emphasis on the safety and dignity of women journalists. For more on this, our principal correspondent, Dharamjot, is joining us live on WION Newsroom. Dharamjot, over to you. Take us through the latest updates. Well, Kanishka, a lot has been happening on the ground, especially over the past weekend, right from Friday afternoon, evening, all through Sunday. Monday, of course, was a completely different scenario with a major opposition rally. But this entire court hearing that just took place in the Apex Court of India pertain to a lot of incidents that occurred over the weekend in different parts of the national capital, especially near Jantar Mantar in Connaught Place as well. And so whenever the protests were taking place and police were detaining protesters, there was also other incidents in which security personnel were detaining journalists as well. In fact, trying to get access to areas where demonstrations were happening or a bit of action was happening was not always easy for media persons to get there. There has been a lot of security. Police personnel have been on top of the situation with respect to maintaining law and order. But in terms of the overreach that is being talked about, the accusations of how police has, quote-unquote, manhandled even journalists who are reporting over the weekend from these demonstrations, that is a conversation that has reached the court. There is also another contempt petition that is being heard in the top court with respect to a lot of detention of the journalists by police personnel over the past weekend. But this particular case that was being heard in court and will now be heard again on Thursday is in particular about female journalists in question over here. In fact, when I was there over the weekend, we did see a few independent and small media houses or digital journalists being detained by police and then being whisked away and then put into detention buses and then they were taken to these designated detention centres. And so all of that did unfold in separate instances over the weekend and all of those accusations and allegations, many of which were also caught on video, have now reached the legal corridors of India. Of course, today the Supreme Court has said that they want the opposing side, which is they want a senior police official present in court to hear their version of events or hear what their reasoning or justification for these actions is. And so now this case will next be heard on Thursday. It is Tuesday today, so day after tomorrow is when this petition will be heard again and this conversation will move forward. But this is where things currently stand. This is not the only petition that is being heard in the Apex Court right now. many others with respect to allegations of police excesses and overreach by security officials is also being discussed in the Supreme Court in front of special benches right now, Kanishka. Apart from this, Dharamjot, any word on the opposition meeting that is due to take place later today at Rahul Gandhi's residence? Well, we do know that meeting is happening at around 4 p.m. this evening. It's an open invitation given by the leader of opposition, like a tea invite to his residence. And so it's not just opposition lawmakers that he's invited. He's also called on student bodies and other civil organizations that are in their own space and manner protesting and joining demonstrations with respect to the entire SIR Rao and also raising demand for Chief Election Commissioner Ganesh Kumar's resignation. And so what Rahul Gandhi in effect is now trying to do at the upcoming meeting is try and discuss a joint strategy of sorts with respect to having a single combined movement on this matter. Remember there was a video that Rahul Gandhi put out late on Saturday night, on Sunday night, my apologies, where he asked people from all walks of life and across political or social ideologies to come together for this movement. And if it is one common demand that they're raising, than it is one single protest. It's not different demonstrations or protests. It's one movement at this point. And so there is, in effect, now going to be a meeting with respect to that in about a few hours from now at his residence, Kanishka. All right, thank you, Dharamjot, for all of those updates. We'll keep getting back to you for more.