Arvind Kejriwal to meet Lieutenant Governor to complain about Delhi Police

New Delhi: A day after flaying the Delhi Police, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will on Friday meet Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Police Commissioner BS Bassi. An angry Chief Minister had yesterday accused the city’s police of being “a highly compromised force”. Today, he is expected to follow up on a “warning” he issued that action must be taken against policemen who, he said, had refused to act against alleged criminals at the instance of two of his ministers, who had public altercations with the cops.

As Delhi is not a full-fledged state, Delhi Police does not report to the city government. It is controlled by the Union Home Ministry. Kejriwal, who took power on December 28 after being an activist for years, did not say what he planned to do vis-a-vis Delhi Police. To repeated queries, he simply said: “Dekte rahiye.”
He also made a controversial statement saying, “if you don’t arrest drug and sex offenders… this is where tendencies of rape begin.”
“Why are rapes happening in Delhi? If crime does not happen in Delhi, it is not because of the Delhi Police, but inspite of it,” Mr Kejriwal said at his press conference yesterday, where Law Minister Somnath Bharti explained that his attempt to carry out a surprise raid on what he alleged was a drug and prostitution ring had ended in an argument with cops, as they refused to act.
Rakhi Birla, AAP’s youngest minister who looks after women’s affairs, was there too and accused policemen of shielding people who had allegedly attempted a murder for dowry.
“Delhi has security not because of Delhi Police but despite Delhi Police,” he said, demanding to know why there were so many incidents of rape in the national capital compared to other parts of India.
The comment followed the gang rape of a Danish woman in Delhi. The woman was assaulted near the New Delhi railway station.