Midnight raid at Ramdev's protest camp political decision: Delhi police

The decision to conduct the mid night operation at Ramlila Maidan, the venue of Baba Ramdev's hunger strike, was a "political" one, a top Delhi police officer said here today.

The operation, which caught Ramdev and his supporters unaware, began after 1 am and was almost over within couple of hours.

"It was a political decision. Otherwise we would not have carried out the operation although we had given permission only to hold yoga camp and not an agitation," said the police official.

He said police tried to pursued Ramdev to leave the place peacefully but he did not heed to the request and instead asked his supporters not to leave the venue.

The officer said followers of Ramdev had pelted stones at police personnel.

"We requested him to leave the place peacefully. But he did not listen to us. Then his supporters started pelting stones at us," said the officer.

Earlier, police had blocked all the roads leading to Ramlila Maidan.