‘If cops don’t act, we’ll fix them’, says Manish Sisodia
NEW DELHI : Arvind Kejriwal will meet Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde at 5.30 this evening, after Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi reportedly told him that he will not suspend three cops who the Chief Minister says refused to act against alleged criminals.
Here are the 10 big developments in this story:
Mr Kejriwal had met Mr Bassi at a meeting with Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung this afternoon. The chief minister had sought the meeting to complain about the non-cooperation of the police with the state government. Mr Kejriwal has demanded the suspension of the Station House Officers or SHOs of Sagarpur and Malviya Nagar for not acting on the complaints of two of his ministers – law minister Somnath Bharti and women’s affairs minister Rakhi Birla – in separate incidents.
He has also demanded that the SHO of Paharganj be suspended. A Danish national was gang-raped in the area on Tuesday evening. Mr Kejriwal has blamed the Delhi Police.Mr Bassi reportedly told Mr Kejriwal that the cop who had an altercation with law minister Somnath Bharti, was following procedure and it was the minister who broke the law.
Mr Kejriwal’s senior minister Manish Sisodia has dismissed the Delhi Police plea that it cannot make arrests on the spot on demand and that needs warrants to do so.The Delhi Police reports to the Lieutenant Governor. Mr Kejriwal was among his predecessor Sheila Dikshit’s most vocal critics for pointing to that fact when her Congress government was assailed for failing to ensure the safety of women in the Capital after the brutal gang-rape of a medical student on a moving bus in December 2012.
Mr Kejriwal has been severely criticised by both the Congress and the BJP for his government’s inadequate response to the shocking gang-rape of the Danish woman in the heart of Delhi.He made a controversial statement yesterday saying, “if you don’t arrest drug and sex offenders… this is where tendencies of rape begin.”
Mr Kejriwal has accused the Delhi Police of being a “highly compromised force.”
