Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may face the music if he goes ahead with his planned dharna outside the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday demanding the suspension of Delhi cops who refused to follow the orders of his Ministers.
The Delhi Police has imposed prohibitory orders in the entire New Delhi area and around 5,000 police personnel, including paramilitary forces, have been deployed all over New Delhi district to avoid any untoward incident. Section 144 of the CrPC imposed by the Delhi Police will remain in force for four days. Any person contravening the order shall be punishable under Section 188 of the IPC which entails imprisonment for up to 30 days and also a monetary penalty.
However, a senior police official said the Chief Minister is protected by special privileges and he cannot be arrested. He can only be detained. However, the police officer who detains the Chief Minister would have to inform the Speaker of the Delhi legislative Assembly about the detention. In case there is any law and order crisis or a riot-like situation, a case can be registered against the Chief Minister.
Kejriwal had on Friday announced that he would stage a dharna at the MHA seeking action against two Delhi Police officials and demanding to bring Delhi Police under control of Delhi Government. “We will sit on dharna outside Home Minister’s office from 10 am on Monday as our demand for suspension of police officials is not met,” said Delhi Urban Development Minister and a key AAP member Manish Sisodia. However, anticipating a law and order crisis, the police have made the area out of bound for an Assembly of five or more persons.
“Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed in New Delhi District. If anyone has any grievance of any sort, then they may contact the local SHO or the local Deputy Commissioner of Police. Gathering anywhere or staging a protest in New Delhi district area will be prohibited,” said Delhi Police PRO Rajan Bhagat.
Police maintained that the precautionary step has been taken in view of the Republic Day preparations and also because dress rehearsals for the parade are going on. Kejriwal had on Friday met Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and demanded action against the policemen who refused to cooperate with law Minister Somnath Bharti in cracking down on an alleged prostitution ring in South Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAM) Government had also sought action against a policeman who had a tiff with Women and Child Development Minister Rakhi Birla in Sagarpur area of South-West Delhi. The Chief Minister had also blamed police for the way in which it handled the gangrape case of a Danish tourist.
On the other hand, party national spokesman Sanjay Singh said that AAP-led Delhi Government was concerned about the safety of Delhi residents and stressed upon his party’s demand that Delhi Police be brought under the State Government. At present, the Delhi Police is accountable to the Union Home Ministry. “We are still going ahead with our dharna against the Delhi Police. Security of women is one of the priorities for the AAP,” he said.