New Delhi, Nov 28: The midnight crackdown on Ramdev and his followers at the Ramlila ground during their protest against corruption was a result of “irresponsible” behaviour of the yoga guru's running away from the venue and leaving his supporters who resorted to unprovoked violence, Delhi Police told the Supreme Court today.
“Ramdev Baba jumped down and left the stage, leaving it to a few of his supporters who started hurling stones towards the police,” advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the police, told a bench of justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar.
When the bench said perhaps the stone-pelting started after police had lobbed tear gas shell at the venue, the advocate said it happened after Ramdev's followers indulged in violence.
Delhi Police claimed there was not many people left after Ramdev went away from the place and aroud 200 of his followers had climbed on the stage and pelted stones at security personnel.
“Police did not have the intention to evict and the situation was under control for two hours (before violence)”, he said adding tear gas was used after water canon to disperse the erring people failed.
Earlier also on November 25, Delhi Police had blamed for the “entire mess” on the yoga guru saying he should take the “responsibility” for it.
The police had also justified the involvement of Home Minister P Chidambaram for maintaining law and order at the venue saying “malafide” cannot be attributed to him as he was obviously “worried” when the gathering exceeded the capacity and his action was “constitutionally permissible”.
