Delhi ministers raid houses, Kejriwal defends

Two ministers in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government early on Thursday “raided” houses of residents in their constituencies. The episodes sent the Delhi Police into a tizzy and pitted the men in khaki against politicians who seemed hell-bent on usurping powers of the law enforcers.

 

Law Minister Somnath Bharti “raided” a house in south Delhi’s Khirki Extension and Women and Child Welfare Minister Rakhi Birla and her supporters barged into a house in west Delhi’s Sagarpur. Kejriwal put his weight behind his cabinet colleagues and demanded suspension of the SHOs of the Malviya Nagar and Sagarpur police stations. He also set up a Friday meeting with Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung over the two episodes and the gang-rape of a 51-year-old Danish woman in central Delhi. 

 The script of the incidents seemed common. Both ministers indulged in police bashing, accusing the law enforcers of not doing enough to check prostitution and drug abuse in Khirki Extension and showing laxity in the probe into a woman’s death in Sagarpur.  

While Kejriwal blew his top over the “lax and compromised” policemen in the capital, Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi denied that there was “rift between the force and the state government”.

The Delhi Police is not under the control of the state government, but reports to the Union Home Ministry through the Lieutenant Governor. Kejriwal further warned the police commissioner that the government and the people will not remain mute spectators, in case its functioning does not improve. The chief minister's reaction also came in response to letters written to him by Bharti and Birla.

 “Police present on the crime spot at Khirki Extension, refused to carry out their lawful duties despite being repeatedly requested by Bharti,” Kejriwal said.