New Delhi: The Delhi Police Commissioner Anurag Kumar has tendered an “unconditional and unqualified apology” to the Supreme Court in the contempt of court case against him on the enormous curbs imposed to keep the planned protest in Delhi on October 10 from happening.Bar and Bench has reported that two affidavits were filed before a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, in which Kumar claimed that there had been “no non-compliance much less any wilful or deliberate non-compliance” with the court’s directions.PTI additionally reports that Union home secretary Govind Mohan has also tendered an unconditional and unqualified apology to the Supreme Court in the contempt case.LiveLaw has reported that on October 15, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that the “apology” tendered by Union government and Delhi authorities in their affidavits is contextualised by the fact that when a contempt notice is issued, the law requires the alleged contemnor to apologise.SG Mehta then assailed media reports highlighting “without context” that the government has apologised to the court.Bar and Bench noted that the contempt petition alleges that the court’s October 9 order was violated by closing entry and exit gates at metro stations.On October 9 and 11, the court had indeed directed that metro services run normally, internet facilities be allowed to go on unhindered, the placement of barricades be reviewed, no one be detained for peaceful assembly outside of curfew areas, and the Section 163 notice board be removed from the court premises.Kumar has said that “internet facilities were working unhindered and only cellular internet services were suspended owing to the law and order situation.”Mohan said in his apology that the request was received from Delhi Police to suspend cellular internet services for one day, until 10 pm on October 10.“The request was duly processed and considered in accordance with law and was found to be a proportionate measure, having regard to the magnitude of the situation and the need to prevent any disturbance of public order in the national capital,” Mohan said.Police also claimed that the Supreme Court’s metro shutdown order led to the number of closed stations to be brought down to 45 stations from 57 stations. “About 15% of the entire network,” Kumar said.The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and its chairperson also filed separate affidavits in the Supreme Court on Wednesday (October 14) claiming that its metro network remained “fully functional” on October 10.Despite the closure of 45 stations, the DMRC said, “There was zero reduction in the total volume of metro operation or the number of train trips.”The police affidavit states, according to Bar and Bench, that no notice warning against protests was affixed inside the precincts of the Supreme Court.The police claimed that no one was illegally detained and those detained were given “hot, fresh and good meals” in “makeshift centres”.Political leaders were seated in SHO chambers and offered “tea, coffee, meals and other refreshments,” the commissioner claimed.These accounts are at odds with several reports of thousands of protesters having been beaten, shoved, mistreated at various detention centres. Many said they were not even given water or first aid.Incredibly, the affidavit also claims that the Congress protests on October 6, 7 and 8, were “fuelled by persons adorning cover of ‘freelance journalism’.”Several journalists, many of them indeed freelancers, have been detained and harassed as they covered the protests, in contravention of yet another Supreme Court order.