Police warned CJP about crowd management a day before Parliament march turned violent
A video purportedly recorded at Jantar Mantar a day before the CJP’s ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest march on July 20 has surfaced online, showing senior Delhi Police officers asking the organisers to implement adequate crowd-management measures before the gathering swelled.
The viral video captures an interaction involving New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police Sachin Sharma, Joint Commissioner of Police Deepak Purohit and Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) representatives Saurav Das and other members.
During the conversation, the officers are seen expressing concern over the lack of preparations for the protest and cautioning organisers about potential security risks. One officer is heard advising the organisers to deploy volunteers to regulate the crowd.
According to police, they repeatedly cautioned the organisers that inadequate crowd-management arrangements could make the situation difficult to handle as attendance increased.
They tell the organisers that there were not enough volunteers deployed to regulate the crowd, despite repeated requests from the police. DCP Sachin Sharma is heard telling the organisers that they should deploy at least a minimum number of volunteers to help manage the gathering and prevent any untoward situation.
“I have been requesting you for quite some time,” Sharma says in the video while speaking to the organisers. The DCP also warns that there are “criminal elements” present among the crowd, making effective crowd management even more important.
The officers stress that without volunteers on the ground, the police alone would find it difficult to control the gathering if the situation escalated.
A senior police officer, on the condition of anonymity, said they had contacted the CJP and had asked them to control the crowd and maintain law and order. The CJP’s ‘Sansad Chalo’ protest march in New Delhi turned violent, injuring 118 police personnel, including senior officers and several women officers and approximately 60 protesters.
However, the tension culminated in a major political breakthrough on July 25. Hours after Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, the CJP called off its 36-day protest at Jantar Mantar over the NEET issue immediately, declaring that the Government had finally accepted all its demands.
