The relationship between Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal and Police Commissioner BS Bassi hit a new low on Monday as the top cop stood his ground and refused to share details sought by the CM during their meeting. They even got into a heated exchange during the meeting that lasted for more than one hour, sources said.
Kejriwal had summoned Bassi after the gruesome murder of a 19-year-old girl in Anand Parbat area.
After the meeting, Delhi Home Minister Satyendra Jain said the Delhi Police was treating the case “lightly” and termed its stand “objectionable” while accusing Bassi of stonewalling a number of queries by Kejriwal.
In the meeting, Bassi gave a list of 500 similar cases and asked the Chief Minister whether his Government would offer Rs5 lakh each as compensation to families of the other victims like it did in the case of the teenaged girl, said Jain, who was present in the meeting.
“Kejriwal told Bassi to give the list to his boss the Prime Minister. Bassi replied saying the PM was busy with other work and has no time for Delhi Police”, Jain added.
Attacking Delhi Police, Jain accused it of politicising the probe into the girl’s murder and said the police was ignoring the common people of Delhi.
He said the Chief Minister
has jurisdiction to question the police.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Bassi, however, rejected reports of any altercation with Kejriwal. He said the talks were held in a professional manner, keeping in view the law of the land. “Had a
cordial meeting with the CM,” Bassi said.
Bassi rejected Jain’s contention, saying the police take any incident of crime as a challenge and that there was a lack of “appreciations of nuances of law”.
“In this case there was no need for remand of accused. That would have been improper. I tried to explain in what circumstances remand is sought,” the Police Commissioner said on Jain questioning police on its decision not seek remand of the accused.
He said, “We owe duty to rule of law. It’ll be unfortunate if police succumbs to public pressure” adding “certain expectations” could not be met as they were beyond jurisdiction of law.
Bassi said the Delhi Police is “robustly independent” and that there is no political pressure on it because those in-charge of administrative control of police “have no local vested interests”.
“Delhi Chief Minister, Ministers and MlAs have local expectations. For that reason there is a possibility of their judgement getting coloured whereas Union Ministers
have no local vested interests allowing us to work independently,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Bassi met lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung at a weekly meeting of law and order at Raj Niwas and explained all issues including police investigation into the murder of Meenakshi, who was stabbed 35 times in Anand Parbat area of Central Delhi on Thursday night.
The Chief Minister’s Office had asked Bassi to bring a list of pending cases of crime against woman, status of the cases filed as well as details of the SHOs who have not been transferred despite completing their terms. Bassi was also told to bring a list of beat constables and list of inspectors who were never made SHOs.
However, Bassi refused to provide the details sought by the Chief Minister, Jain said.
Jain said, “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.
On the AAP Government’s demand for handing over the control of Delhi Police, Bassi said, “Control over the Delhi Police is a political issue. My personal opinion is that the Delhi Police system is an excellent system. It’s a very good fortune of people of Delhi that an independent machinery works here which does everything as per law.”
He denied that Kejriwal was putting pressure on Delhi Police adding that “he has his own ideas and he is concerned with issues of Delhi.
The teen’s murder has bolstered its case for the takeover of the Delhi Police. After meeting the girl’s family, Kejriwal had said: “I request Prime Minister Narendra Modi with folded hands that the control of the Delhi Police be handed over to us. He has to run the whole country.”
The bitterness has amplified in the past month with the arrest of two AAP leaders, including then law Minister Jitender Singh Tomar, who has been accused of forging his law degree. The AAP accuses the police of hounding its leaders.