A posse of policemen and policewomen who were deployed at the Cubbon Park police station stood mute witnesses to the attack unleashed on media by Haris supportersPolice in India have to follow a very basic rule – all police stations should be open 24/7 and under no circumstances should they be shuttered.On Monday, Cubbon Park police station created history, that too in the presence of its crème de la crème – the Indian Police Service. For over five hours, Bengaluru police blocked entry to the station and even threw out the handful of complainants who were waiting for justice. They were expecting a ‘VIP’ visitor – a man accused of assaulting a fellow diner at the tony Farzi Café in UB City.When the VIP visitor arrived – he goes by the name of Mohammed Haris Nalapad and is the elder son of Shanthinagar MLA NA Haris – senior police officers were waiting in anticipation. Additional Commissioner of Police (West) BK Singh (who is heading the SIT investigating Gauri Lankesh’s murder) was present along with his deputy, DCP (Central) Chandragupta. It was 10.59 am when Haris Junior got off an auto at Kasturba Road, jumped the median and ran into the police station.Scores of media personnel waiting outside the police station were cleverly thrown off-track by Haris’s supporters – minutes earlier a high-end car was seen leaving the Haris residence behind Garuda Mall and everybody was waiting for the said car.(It maybe pertinent to note here that the police were 'waiting' for Mohammed to surrender and were not in hot pursuit – he had allegedly assaulted Vidvat at Farzi Café on Saturday around 10 pm. Police waited over 37 hours for Mohammed to give himself up).There were a clutch of protests going on when Mohammed arrived – BJP, AAP and JD (S) activists had blocked the road, waving party flags. Congress supporters arrived too, and raised slogans against the BJP.By 12 noon, Singh and Chandragupta ordered that the gates be closed and barricades erected to prevent anybody from entering the station. Police sub-inspector Thippeswamy asked a man, who had come to lodge a complaint, to return on Tuesday as the police were busy with Mohammed’s case. Another senior citizen who had been waiting for a while was asked to leave.With gates shut, very little information was trickling out. All that the Bangalore Mirror team noticed was a policeman going inside with nifty containers of nibbles from an uptown café (only for the officers, someone pointed out); minutes later a policeman in civvies arrived with a bucketful of pulao, bhajji, raita and chutney for the lower-rung officials.Around 2.10 pm, curious ‘onlookers’ started arriving at the police station. They came in groups of four to five. When the numbers swelled, some of them tried to manhandle the Bangalore Mirror team and other journalists.By 3 pm, these ‘onlookers’ started protesting; sons of other prominent Congress and BJP leaders were also present at the spot, they alleged. They were also miffed that TV channels were airing only stories about Mohammed’s assault and not mentioning about others present at the café. Media persons tried to ignore the bunch (their numbers had reached around 100 by this time) even though it was quite clear what their intentions were. They had come prepared to assault media persons. By 3.40 pm, Singh left the police station, clearing the way for the attack.Assault begins when their dear leader is bundled into the police vanAt 3.58 pm, when Mohammed was brought out of the police station and packed into the police van, sloganeering started. ‘Jai ho, Jai ho’, a clutch of supporters began shouting; and Mohammed responded by waving at his supporters like a popular film star. At the same time, some TV cameramen felt their collars being pulled. A full-fledged assault started within seconds. At least three cameramen were attacked by Mohammed’s supporters; they were raining blows on journalists doing their jobs.Mohammed’s supporters did not want their leader to be filmed while being taken to the court. As the van pulled into the distance, police separated the media and Mohammed’s supporters. That is when all hell broke loose.Bruised by the assault, media persons decided to focus their cameras on the goons, who clearly were not impressed. They started chasing the camera men and reporters while raining blows on some of them. (It is pertinent to note here that this happened in full view of at least 20 police personnel who did nothing, absolutely nothing).The goons chased the journalists till Bal Bhavan (around 150 m from Cubbon Park police station). Some journalists managed to catch one of the attackers and the other goons then broke rank; they reassembled near the Queen’s statue. A couple of policemen then pointed at the rowdies and suggested to media persons that they should leave the place as goons had assembled in large numbers and would assault them again. One of them was ‘happy’ that members of the media were being attacked.Some journalists then filed a formal complaint with the DCP who promised to take action against the attackers. He also told Bangalore Mirror that there was only a delay in filing complaints. “I attended to five complaints from public after Mohammed was taken to court.”An FIR against the goons was registered late on Monday evening.Mohammed’s father, Shanthinagar MLA, apologises to Vidvat, familyAround 5.20 pm, NA Haris sent a WhatsApp message saying he would “like to apologise to Vidvat, his parents and the citizens of Bangalore”. He made absolutely no mention of what his goons had done at the Cubbon Park police station. He did not fail to mention that he was “taken aback at how the media is only trying to stress on this issue”.Mohammed, six associates in police custody till Feb 21Mohammed and his six cronies, who allegedly assaulted Vidvat in UB City on Saturday night, were remanded in police custody till February 21 by the Eighth ACMM Court. After seeking court’s permission, Section 307 (attempt to murder) was added to the list of charges. (It is pertinent to note here that the police booked Mohammed and his friends under very mild charges like wrongful restraint, assault, criminal intimidation, disturbing peace of the area etc. even though they knew that Vidvat had been assaulted with glass bottles – a potential life-threatening act. Mohammed and his cronies had followed up the attack by going to Mallya Hospital and warning Vidvat.All through the day, what stood out when Mohammed arrived at the Cubbon Park police station and was later taken to court was his confidence and audacity. While the other six accused tried to hide their faces in front of the cameras, he was playing to the galleries; he even shook hands with a policeman and waved at the cheering crowds.Pucca politician, somebody from the crowd pointed out.