Expressing concern over the rising incidents of crime in the Capital in the wake of the December 16 “brutal” gang-rape, the Delhi High Court directed city police to pull up its socks.
Rebuking Delhi Police for not acting tough in handling rape cases, despite court directions, Chief Justice NV Ramana asked them to file an affidavit disclosing the number of vacancies of personnel dealing with the investigation of such cases. The Court also asked the Centre and Delhi Government to disclose the number of forensic labs in the city and time taken to file each forensic report.
“Despite several directions of this Court earlier while taking suo motu cognisance over the December 16 brutal gang-rape case, the incidents are taking place. Implementation of such directions is the real issue and you (police) need to improve the working mechanism,” the bench, headed by the division bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, observed.
The bench, while asking the Special Public Prosecutor Dayan Krishnan to furnish the number of vacancies of the personnel, said, “Delhi Police will file an affidavit disclosing the number of vacancies of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), Sub-Inspectors and Inspectors, including the number of women personnel and their allocation in various police stations.”
The Court also asked the Centre and Delhi Government to file an affidavit disclosing the number of forensic labs in the city and the time taken by them to send forensic reports.
The bench, which had taken suo motu cognisance over the reprehensible December 16 case in which 23-year-old paramedical student was gang-raped in a moving bus, fixed October 3 for further hearing of the matter.
However, the Delhi Police counsel informed the Court that in following the Court’s directions, the department has taken initiatives, including training of personnel to upgrade the system. The bench had earlier decided to monitor the December 16 incident probe by directing the police to carry a “high standard” investigation.
Further, the Court had asked the State Government and health department to issue a directive to hospitals to attend to all trauma care patients; this was also applicable to private hospitals. It noted that no hospital could turn down a patient who needed immediate medical attention, especially in incidents of rape and mishap.