The morning after Delhi Police dismantled the venue of Baba Ramdev’s fast in a midnight swoop, the Ramlila Maidan bore a deserted and distressing look.

While the heavy police contingent guarding the entry to the ground didn’t allow even the members of the press to go inside, a sneak peek inside, managed after much persuasion with the security forces, cried aloud the distressing tale of police brutality that thousands of peacefully protesting men and women faced. There were pieces of torn clothes, some soaked in blood, strewn all over.

Many protestors, some of them brutally beaten, were a harrowed lot who took shelter on the nearby roads. However, even after the break of the dawn, hundreds of men and women, scattered in small groups dared the heavy police party near the entrance of the ground, calling them “tyrants”. These people were trying to reassemble, showing signs of their unflinching resolve.
 
There was disbelief among the victims of police manhandling that they were attacked unprovoked while they were sleeping, thrashed and huddled into police vans to be dropped at a distance from the venue.
 
Many of them, who talked to Governance Now, also alleged that women protestors too were not spared and not only manhandled but molested by “drunken” men of the Rapid Action Force and the Central Reserve Police Force who were “accomplices” to Delhi Police in this atrocity.

A woman who came from Moradabad and part of the first ring of the 'human guard' that tried to protect Baba Ramdev from being manhandled by police, said on condition of anonymity, “I was sleeping barely 25 metres from the stage where the Baba was sleeping. When I woke up due to commotion, I realised something was terribly wrong. Policemen had blocked all the three stairs and were trying to arrest him. We alarmed each other and rushed to protect the Baba. The police beat us all up, tore our clothes.”

There was no woman police force, she alleged.

Prabhu Biswas, who had come from Saharsa in Bihar, was trying to locate his friends. “What happened was worse than Jalianwala bagh massacre.”

Ravi Ranjan Kumar, who had bruises on his back, said, “What has happened reminds me of the British Raj. The police action was completely inhuman and undemocratic.” Refusing to go back home, he said he was loitering around after receiving the first-aid in the hope that others would join him too. “I will sit alone and wait for my friends. We have not lost yet. We have to still fight for the causes the Baba has raised.”
 
There were people who pleaded with the policemen to be allowed inside the ground to collect their belongings. They were not allowed in. Delhi police sub inspector Jagbir Singh said, “We are taking their belongings to the Kamla Market police station from where people can collect them.”
 
Some of those injured in police action were being treated at the GB Pant hospital. The policemen were guarding the entry there too and didn’t allow mediapersons in. After managing a backdoor entry, Governance Now spoke with 60-year-old Parmanand Singh who had come from Bokaro in Jharkhand to support the agitation . Singh had a broken leg as he had to jump from the stage during the commotion. He said, "I am not deterred and will fight till my last breath for the Baba.”