One of the most prominent courthouses in the country became the site of widespread and shocking violence on Monday, just as it was about to take up the matter of Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who was charged with sedition after a group of students held an event on campus marking the third anniversary of the hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict, Afzal Guru.

Students and journalists were beaten black and blue by lawyers at the Patiala House Court, who decided to take matters into their own hands by punishing those they considered traitors. Those who tried to take a video of the violence found their cell phones smashed. Reporters were told it was a small mercy that it was their phones that had been broken, not their bones. What was doubly shameful is that this took place even while there was considerable police presence at the complex.