New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday asked Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi to provide details on crimes against women in the national capital.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader made the request at a meeting with Bassi at his office, four days after the brutal murder of a teenaged girl made the city government reiterate its demand for administrative control over Delhi Police.
“We asked Bassi to give us details on the number of FIRs registered on the basis of complaints by women and FIRs not registered by police,” Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain told the media.
Kejriwal asked Bassi to make public the names of inspectors who were being repeatedly made heads of police stations, and inspectors ignored for such postings, Jain said.
Delhi Police, which functio9ns under the administrative control of and reports to the union home ministry – and not to the city government – has some 1,500 inspectors who alone are eligible to head police stations in the city.
Jain said Bassi declined to share this information.
The police commissioner provided to Kejriwal a list of 500 people who were murdered in Delhi, saying the chief minister must give their families too the ex-gratia he announced for the family of the teenaged girl murdered last week.
“When we told him to give this list to the prime minister, Bassi said the prime minister did not have time for all this and he was too much preoccupied in other matters.”
“He (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) has no time for Delhi Police,” Jain quoted the police commissioner as saying.
Jain insisted that Kejriwal had a right to ask these questions to Bassi “as we are people’s representatives”.
“The chief minister has the right to ask these questions. It is also his duty to ask these questions.”
“Those whose salaries come from public funding must provide answers to the public,” Jain said.
According to Delhi government sources, Kejriwal also demanded from the police chief a list of constables with mobile numbers “so that policing in the city can be improved”.
After emerging from the meeting, Bassi said it was cordial and held in a professional way, keeping in view the law of the land.
“Talks took place in a very cordial and positive environment. I tried to present my view on the role of police in society,” he said.
Bassi said in the meeting he informed Kejriwal that police took every incident of crime as a challenge and responsibility to give justice to the victims.
He also told the media that police would not buckle under any pressure as it was an independent machinery.
“Delhi’s people are lucky that they have got an independent police machinery in the city,” he said.
Speaking on the incident in Anand Parbat area in which the teenaged girl was stabbed to death, Bassi said investigation was on.
“Question of not being sensitive to this matter doesn’t arise. Immediately strenuous efforts were made, culprits were arrested. Our investigation is still on,” he added.
Before meeting the chief minister, Bassi in the morning met Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung and discussed ways to improve the law and order situation in the capital.
After meeting Jung, Bassi said police were accountable to the system and not to any individual.