Arvind Kejriwal threatens agitation if police officials not punished

NEW DELHI: Tensions between the Centre and the Delhi government escalated on Friday as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met the Union home minister and threatened to launch an agitation unless the police officials involved in an ugly spat with his cabinet ministers were punished, an intervention that drew flak from several quarters for bordering on vigilantism.

In a move that is expected to snowball into an ugly confrontation between the state and Delhi police, cabinet minister Manish Sisodia warned that the government and people of Delhi will not remain mute spectators if the police functioning did not improve, while Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi stood by his men and refused to take any action until an impartial inquiry is completed.

The Delhi Lt. Governor ordered an inquiry by a retired judge earlier on Friday after Kejriwal met him along with Sisodia and women and child development minister Rakhi Birla.

“Whatever my officers told me is prima facie correct. As a Delhi Police chief, I will always stand by my men. The L-G has ordered an inquiry into the matter...I will be able to take action only after the inquiry report comes,” Bassi told reporters immediately after meeting Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Home Secretary Anil Goswami.

The AAP government also reiterated a long-standing demand of its predecessor to hand over the charge of the Delhi Police to the state government. At present, the state police are under the jurisdiction of the Central government and reports directly to the Delhi Lt. Governor.

“The aggrieved come to me when a crime takes place in Delhi, not Mr Shinde. So Delhi police should be under Delhi government. He (Shinde) said that he will look into it,” Kejriwal said after his meeting with Shinde.