An Indian student leader arrested on a controversial sedition charge was attacked on Wednesday when police brought him into court, as anger over a case that has sparked mass protests boiled over.
Men inside the court were seen setting upon Kanhaiya Kumar, who was arrested on Friday over a rally at Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University where anti-India slogans were chanted.
India’s Supreme Court, which had directed Delhi police to ensure the safety of all inside the lower court following an earlier outbreak of violence, dispatched a team of lawyers to assess the situation.
“We have informed the Supreme Court about the atmosphere of terror in Patiala House,” said one of the lawyers, A.D.N. Rao.
“The accused was beaten up. The panel members were also heckled.”
The 32-year-old student union leader’s arrest has sparked a major row over freedom of expression in India, where some rights campaigners say the Hindu nationalist government is using the British-era sedition law to clamp down on dissent.