NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the release of all protesters under the age of 18 arrested during the Cockroach movement demonstrations over exam paper leaks and directed authorities to preserve surveillance footage after petitioners alleged police brutality during the protests.
Indian media reports said Chief Justice Surya Kant also directed authorities to preserve the digital and personal data of people who participated in the demonstrations and barred any coercive action against protesters.
The media reports said Kant took interim steps in response to petitions filed by student protesters and activists seeking action against police and paramilitary forces for what they said was the use of excess force and pellet guns during the weeks-long demonstrations in the national capital and other cities.
He called for the preservation of all footage, including from drones, body cameras, and CCTV footage, and directed authorities to ensure protesters’ data was not made public.
“Whoever has committed excess … atrocities on innocent people, the law will take care of them. For that, there needs to be a completely independent and fair investigation,” Kant said, according to legal website Live Law, one of several outlets reporting the ruling.
“A probe is meaningless if no responsibility is fixed,” he said, before ordering the interim steps.
The government has defended police action during the protests as lawful crowd control.
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The Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, was cited by media reports as having said in court that while the matter of students being attacked could not be taken lightly, about 250 police officers were also injured, adding that the government had no objection to an investigation into the matter.
The protests, triggered by the leak of question papers for a national medical college entrance exam, ended on Saturday after the education minister resigned and the government agreed to the protesters’ demands for exam reforms, withdrawal of police cases, and compensation for families of students who died by suicide after the leaks.
Security forces’ violence against Cockroach protesters
Tensions erupted between protesters and security forces in several parts of the country during the demonstrations, including in New Delhi, where people attempting to march on parliament were met with tear gas and baton charges.
Indian authorities have also suspended a policeman in an eastern state for firing rounds in the air from an assault rifle to disperse student protesters over the weekend.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was also facing a challenge from activists over the use of AI-powered surveillance at the protests, after demonstrators posted pictures on social media of a mobile police surveillance van equipped with cameras on a telescopic mast, providing a 360-degree view of the gathering.
The self-named Cockroach Janta Party, which spearheaded the movement, said on Monday that “hundreds” of students had been arrested in various states, in violation of the government’s commitment.
