Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addressing the press conference on Thursday
's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has declared war against the Delhi Police, who have refused their demand to punish three police officers accused by ministers of not acting on their complaints.
Mr Kejriwal met Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and will now take his complaint to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.
Sources said Mr Kejriwal has asked the Delhi Police to suspend three police officers who, he alleged, refused to act against alleged criminals at the instance of ministers Somnath Bharti and Rakhi Birla. But the Delhi Police Commissioner has refused to order their suspension.
One of them is the Station House Officer of the police station at Paharganj, where a Danish woman was gang-raped this week. Severely criticised by both the Congress and the BJP for his government's inadequate response to the rape, Mr Kejriwal squarely blamed the Delhi Police.
He also made a controversial statement saying, "if you don't arrest drug and sex offenders... this is where tendencies of rape begin."
"Why are rapes happening in Delhi? If crime does not happen in Delhi, it is not because of the Delhi Police, but inspite of it," Mr Kejriwal said at his press conference yesterday, where Somnath Bharti, the Law Minister, explained that his attempt to carry out a surprise raid on what he alleged was a drug and prostitution ring had ended in an argument with cops, as they refused to act.
Rakhi Birla, AAP's youngest minister who looks after women's affairs, accused policemen of shielding people who had allegedly attempted a murder for dowry.
The Delhi Police chief later said, "The Delhi Police is capable of protecting people in the city."
Delhi Police reports not to the state government but to the Lieutenant Governor. Mr Kejriwal was among his predecessor Sheila Dikshit's most vocal critics for pointing to that fact when her Congress government was assailed for failing to ensure the safety of women in the Capital after the brutal gang-rape of a medical student on a moving bus in December 2012.