'Will fix city police even if they are not under us'

Sisodia justifies 'raids' by ministers, takes on media

Minutes after Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia vowed to “fix” a lax Delhi Police, there was drama at his press conference on Friday when he told a reporter that he was asking questions as if he was a police spokesperson. 

Sisodia, who was speaking at the Delhi Secretariat about Thursday’s “raids” by AAP ministers and the government’s demand for action against four “non-cooperative” policemen, shot back at a TV journalist, “You are speaking as if you are a Delhi Police spokesman.”

Angry reporters protested against Sisodia’s remark, which came at the fag end of the conference.

Sisodia sensed trouble and quickly said that he had no intention of levelling any charge on mediapersons. Reporters later met Kejriwal and narrated the matter to him. 

Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel described Sisodia’s remark on the mediaperson as an indication of the “arrogance” of AAP ministers. Earlier, an aggressive Sisodia vowed to “fix” the police even if they did not report to the Delhi government.

In an exercise aimed at justifying the “raids” by his cabinet colleague Somnath Bharti and Rakhi Birla, Sisodia said, “Our government won’t make any excuses such as Delhi Police is not under us.”

Police will have to do their duty, he said. “We will fix the police even if they don’t come under us.” Sisodia justified the late night “raid” by Bharti in Khirki Extension, saying the party wanted to take action against people involved in drug trade and prostitution, but the SHO and the ACP did not cooperate with the party leaders. 

On Birla’s raid in Sagarpur, he said, “People had surrounded a house in which they suspected the accused (in a woman-burning case) to be hiding. Police refused to take action against the accused.”

Sisodia’s press conference came after he accompanied Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Birla and  Bharti to a meeting with Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung at his residence, where Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi and Special Commissioner (Law and Order) Deepak Mishra were also present along with the four police officials who are under fire from the AAP ministers.   

Jung set up a committee under a retired judge for probing cases of alleged lapses by the men in khaki. The Police Commissioner refused the demand for immediate suspension of his men.