NDTV: Good evening and welcome to Your Call. This week's guest is a rare visitor to a television studio. Someone who has known Delhi intimately, and has one of the most difficult jobs in India right now, Delhi's new Police Commissioner, Neeraj Kumar. Mr Kumar, thank you very much for joining us tonight. I called it as the most difficult job in India because it's a kind of a double-edged sword in a sense. You report to the Centre and at the same time also to the people of Delhi. Both are quite demanding masters. On one hand you are guarding the centre of Government and on the other hand, the city's problems, such as dealing with crime against women and other issues. How do you strike a balance between tackling terror, Delhi has a target of terror and as India's capital?
Neeraj Kumar: First of all, the job of Delhi's Police Commissioner is the most challenging of all police jobs. It is on account of a variety of reasons. One being that ours is the Capital of the country. And whatever happens here gets followed very closely by the people all over the country, and not just in the city. What we do also sets the benchmark for other police forces, in areas of metropolitan policing, fighting terror, women's safety and so on and so forth. So the task at hand is extremely challenging and also very exciting.
NDTV: You said that one of your tasks is to counter terror. We have seen Delhi to be a target of repeated terror attacks. You have come at a time when the Special Cell has Abu Jundal in custody. You had a briefing on that. How important was the arrest of this man? What was the most important aspect that you can say has come out of the interrogation of Abu Jundal, which has perhaps filled in missing links?
Neeraj Kumar: It would not be appropriate for me to divulge those details. But I can suffice it by saying that he has given very important information about terror networks, how they operate in the country, how they operate outside and how they get support from outside. So we have to look at the forward and backward linkages arising out of his arrest and the details that he has given in this interrogation.
NDTV: We have seen since 9/11 in the United States that terror has known no borders. But one difference is that US and the UK, after the terror attacks, the lessons they have learnt both in intelligence gathering and prevention have helped them. No major terror attacks have taken place after that; whereas in Delhi you have seen a deja vu of terror attacks happening virtually in the same place. We have seen the Delhi High Court, busy markets targeted again and again. The charge here being, the Delhi Police and intelligence agencies never learn. How is that going to change?
Neeraj Kumar: It is not fair to compare our country with the US or the UK. We have thousands of miles of porous borders like Nepal and Bangladesh. We have a coastal area which is also very long. Tackling terror in India is a totally different ballgame. We also have people within our population who are sympathisers, who feel let down, who are susceptible to indoctrination. So the entire complexion of terrorism in India is completely different from what we see in the UK or the US or any other country.
NDTV: But in the Abu Jundal case, he was senior-most. Usually, they hire locals as paid operators. However Abu Jundal was a senior operative. So was Abu Jundal a new kind of Indian terrorist in that sense?
Neeraj Kumar: No, I would say he represents that local connection in the 26/11 case. He represents a man who was engaged in training people in the local dialect, interacting with the press, targeting certain selected iconic places and so on. So he is the local link and through him we are discovering that there are others as well.
NDTV: So you are saying there are other people like him who are strategists who just don't, let's say, plant bombs, but are actual strategists?
Neeraj Kumar: Yes, and some people who may be even more important than he is.
NDTV: It is interesting to see this comes at a time when this week we have had a convention in Delhi, where we've heard that politicians, and various intellectuals talked about the fact that Police often target Muslims and brand innocent Muslims as terrorists. We've had the mother of an alleged terrorist, Fasih, who said that Muslim boys are often picked up. We saw Batla House and the repercussions of that. As a police officer, Delhi's top cop, how do you react to allegations like that?
Neeraj Kumar: Every mother would react the way Fasih's mother has reacted or the way Zabbi's next of kin have reacted. It is natural. For a mother, first comes her son and then anything else. The first reaction would always be by saying that he cannot be involved in anti-national activities. Whatever they claim has to be seen in the larger context of what has come during the investigation, what has he said and what has been discovered on the basis of what he has said. It has to be weighed. This weighing will be done by the courts. We are answerable. Our investigations undergo a very severe and serious judicial scrutiny.
NDTV: As a police officer does it frustrate you when politics are being played over convictions? In the Parliament attack we have seen the case of Afzal Guru and the controversy over whether he will be hanged or not, in spite of the fact that the court had convicted him. Does politics frustrate you?
Neeraj Kumar: We have to live with it. Our job is to investigate, investigate impartially, investigate efficiently and collect evidence, which stands the scrutiny of the courts.
NDTV: But does it send out the wrong message? Does it make the policeman's job much more difficult? Does it give the impression that India's security agencies are soft?
Neeraj Kumar: No our security agencies are not soft at all. We live in a milieu where there would be reactions, be it reactions from family, reactions from political parties, be it reactions from NGOs, it is all part of the ballgame.
NDTV: Let me go across to questions. We spoke about Delhi as a terror target and some people from Sarojini Nagar market have these questions to ask you.
Question: Sarojini Nagar market is one of the most important markets of all. Till the time they have a control over encroachments in this area, we would always be in a threat. The police have barricaded the area. CCTVs function sometimes and not at others. 26 cameras are installed in the market, but yet we are always under some threat or the other.
NDTV: Everyone wants their problems to be regarded as the top priority. But the CCTV camera issue is a big one. I remember even the Chief Minister had said that she does not even have the power to transfer a police constable, why not ask her. Many of it is a dichotomy that the Delhi Police is not even politically accountable to the people, Government of Delhi. Do you think that this is sometimes a bad thing? This is an odd situation.
Neeraj Kumar: I am surprised when you say that we are not accountable to the people. Right at the beginning of the programme, you had said that they were our bosses. We have to answer them on a daily basis, in public opinion, but not in transfers and postings. We prize ourselves in claiming that ours is the only police force in the country where the political influence is minimum in man-management. This is on account of the fact that we are virtually left alone. Why should transferring a constable be such an issue? If someone needs to be transferred for a lapse, the Commissioner Police is there, the JCP (Range) is there, the DCP (District) is there. They are all there to do that. So someone just needs to come up and say that so and so has not worked up to the mark, or has been indulging in malpractices, and it is for us to transfer. Why should anyone else want this power?
NDTV: That is actually a very important point. Why should politicians be involved in the question of transfers at all? But on the issue of political interference, there is always an amount of discomfort among the average citizen over the amount of security that VIPs get. A recent Home Ministry report for the country said that there were three policemen per VIP, while there was only one policeman per 761 citizens in the country. How do you balance that? For VIPs, security is a status symbol as well.
Neeraj Kumar: We need to understand that VVIPs have to be guarded. The President of the USA, wherever he moves, a huge contingent of security moves. Our people never talk about that. His bulletproof car arrives long before he does, his hordes of security people arrive much before him. We always say, oh what an excellent security system the US President has. VVIPs have to be protected because they are our representatives. If they are allowed to remain unguarded and they are harmed, that MP or VVIP is not just any citizen. He represents millions of people. So we have to guard them. At the same time, we should see that it is done in an efficient way and unnecessary deployment of people isn't there. We keep doing that.
NDTV: Well I have an MP with me who has a question to ask you. Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP joins us. Mr. Rudy, go ahead with your question for the new Police Commissioner.
Mr Rudy: In Mumbai, if traffic has to go left, it moves in that direction. Unlike in Delhi, everyone will enter any lane and turn in any side. Most of the police officers have this problem in Delhi, that they are repository of systems, sorry not talking in your context, but they know Delhi, they have seen Delhi and they run Delhi. Most of the officers don't listen to it, I think hearing that thing will be a helpful because we are not in a position to argue with officers, whether it is a sub inspector on a road or an ACP or a DCP. Delhi Police is best is what we say, but this doesn't mean that a hearing is not given.
Neeraj Kumar: No we are not arguing. I am sorry if I have given you that impression. When we discuss what we are doing, we try to understand some problems. No, your point of going left, that is improper lane driving or improper traffic management, which is unacceptable. What I was saying is in Delhi left turns are free. It is not so in other countries, and the simple reason is that we have to take into an account the pedestrians. But I have taken your point and I have no desire to argue as a repository of wisdom. In all humanity I wish to tell you that I, and most of us, take pride in the fact that in our profession we do have a bit of knowledge, like I would never dispute the knowledge which Mr Rudy has in politics, I can never match up to that.
NDTV: Rajiv, thanks so much and for the great passion in the questions, which is something, really I think, has taken up your thinking and mind as well. But now I would like to go to another sad case that we talk about, on the outskirts of Delhi and the Delhi border, Gurgaon and Noida. So much happens over there, which has huge issues of drunk driving. We have a young man and the very sad case that he lost his wife, who was pregnant, Kshama. Thank you Shailesh for joining us at this difficult point of time
Shailesh Shetty: What is the experience like when someone from your family, or you, have to deal with the police? What is the experience, like somehow the belief is, that do the police favour the person behind the wheel or with the victim or his family who are suffering?
NDTV: Mr Kumar whatever has happened in Gurgaon is not directly under you at all, but this story, in the last year of television reporting, is that I have spoken to family after family, and you see the people after the crime simply walking away on bail, and your whole life or the family is destroyed because of this. So what would you say to Shailesh today?
Neeraj Kumar: Drunk and driving is a serious issue in our city as well as in Gurgaon. Here again I believe that just an enforcement of prosecution will not help. What, for instance, we are doing immediately? We are interacting with all the pub owners and night club owners and telling them that, look you are serving drinks to people, but you must warn them that if they do not have anyone else to drive for them, then they will be spotted, they will be prosecuted. And now it's the court's rule that drunken driving is dangerous and the man goes to jail and many people have gone to jail. So drunken driving is at the forefront of our enforcement strategy. And this will be again in an intensive way, there will be traffic police, there will be local police and there will also be police control room vans. So outside the pubs we will spot these people; will prosecute them and we will make sure that they are brought to book. Now I would just like to tell Shailesh, that whatever has happened in Gurgaon could have happened in Delhi. My heartfelt sympathies and all I can say is that even though it is out of my jurisdiction, but I will take details of your case from NDTV, and will speak to my counterpart and assure that justice is done.
NDTV: Shailesh I think that is what an assurance is, there, that sometimes putting pressure at the right place helps. Not sometimes, always sadly in Delhi and Gurgaon. Thank you so much for joining us tonight and we will give the details to Mr Kumar and we will follow this case as well. Thank you for joining us tonight.
You said that one of your big priorities will be women. I have somebody also joining us, who is also concerned about the safety of women. Well let's go across to people of Delhi and see what they have to ask. I think these are some of the things about which Delhi is concerned.
NDTV: But a Rs 100 bribe to a traffic constable, why does it seem that the Delhi police can be bought with Rs 100?
Neeraj Kumar: What he means that Rs 100 for red light jumping is a very, very small amount, even though he is taking. As a fine it is only Rs 100, but if he is taking it as a bribe then that is a serious matter. They wish to contact us and inform us such things. My email address is always on the newspapers. They can write to me directly and we will look into it.
NDTV: I think that last aspect, that would you even let your daughter go late at night, and many people have written in to me when they knew that you are coming on my show, that I will not come to Delhi and that my four-year-old daughter will not be safe in growing up in Delhi. How will you answer to this?
Neeraj Kumar: I will definitely suggest my daughter not to venture out at odd hours in areas, which are poorly lit, areas which are depressed. Depressed areas means, which have high probability of incident happening and we all need to take precautions. For instance, we take precautions for our home safety, by putting grills. We get our servants verified. So an area, which is vulnerable and going at night is more vulnerable, so if my daughter is to step out in such area or time when incidents can occur, I will say don't go.
NDTV: But Sir, you can see rapes are happening in broad daylight. We have seen that the mindset of the Delhi Police is, even we have seen an expose at NDTV also, that often even if policemen is investigating the rape, the attitude is that the girl deserves it. She may have gone to the pub drinking, so that after that if there is some sexual assault she invited it herself. The mindset of the Police is not actually of the same as the people they are policing.
Neeraj Kumar: No I am sorry I beg to differ. Rape cases are investigated by women officers, and lot of attention is paid to them. It may be relevant to point out that 97 per cent of the rape cases takes place inside the homes and by the people whom are known to the victim. So it is a rape if some stranger has caught hold of the woman and raped a few. The last case, which took place at Dhaula Kuan, we have solved it. And I am proud to inform you that it is heading towards conviction and we hope that the culprits will be convicted.
NDTV: Well hopefully we'll see that change in the next 13 months and those words will translate into action. Just to ask of course, your last posting was Tihar Jail and one very interesting aspect is that you had many, many, the lal batti culture, perhaps in Tihar Jail as you had A Raja. You had Kanimozhi. You had Suresh Kalmadi. You had Anna Hazare for one day. You had Bangaru Lakshman. Did it surprise you, as a police officer, to actually see some of India's top politicians inside Tihar Jail?
Neeraj Kumar: No, why should it surprise me?
NDTV: How did you deal with it?
Neeraj Kumar: I mean we dealt with them very fairly in the sense that we took utmost precautions regarding their safety. Because, inside a prison, there are all kinds of people, you know. There are hardened criminals, there are violent criminals; there are psychopaths. So first job was to protect them. And protect them by ensuring that they are lodged in a place where others cannot access them. But having done that, everything else was the same. They all slept on the floors, they all, you know, bathed with cold water. They all, during summer months they could, they had to make do with the fans that we provided. Nothing extra was given. No coolers were given. No air conditioners were given. Never was an impression given to other inmates, that they were being treated differently. So, you, you may have known that not a single complaint of that kind ever came.
NDTV: The city never sleeps Sir. Does the Police Commissioner manage to sleep at night?
Neeraj Kumar: I do. Let me be honest.
NDTV: Well, it's good because we need you fresh and alert for the challenges ahead. Thank you so much, Mr Neeraj Kumar for joining us.
Neeraj Kumar: It has been a pleasure Sonia, thank you.
Neeraj Kumar: First of all, the job of Delhi's Police Commissioner is the most challenging of all police jobs. It is on account of a variety of reasons. One being that ours is the Capital of the country. And whatever happens here gets followed very closely by the people all over the country, and not just in the city. What we do also sets the benchmark for other police forces, in areas of metropolitan policing, fighting terror, women's safety and so on and so forth. So the task at hand is extremely challenging and also very exciting.
NDTV: You said that one of your tasks is to counter terror. We have seen Delhi to be a target of repeated terror attacks. You have come at a time when the Special Cell has Abu Jundal in custody. You had a briefing on that. How important was the arrest of this man? What was the most important aspect that you can say has come out of the interrogation of Abu Jundal, which has perhaps filled in missing links?
Neeraj Kumar: It would not be appropriate for me to divulge those details. But I can suffice it by saying that he has given very important information about terror networks, how they operate in the country, how they operate outside and how they get support from outside. So we have to look at the forward and backward linkages arising out of his arrest and the details that he has given in this interrogation.
NDTV: We have seen since 9/11 in the United States that terror has known no borders. But one difference is that US and the UK, after the terror attacks, the lessons they have learnt both in intelligence gathering and prevention have helped them. No major terror attacks have taken place after that; whereas in Delhi you have seen a deja vu of terror attacks happening virtually in the same place. We have seen the Delhi High Court, busy markets targeted again and again. The charge here being, the Delhi Police and intelligence agencies never learn. How is that going to change?
Neeraj Kumar: It is not fair to compare our country with the US or the UK. We have thousands of miles of porous borders like Nepal and Bangladesh. We have a coastal area which is also very long. Tackling terror in India is a totally different ballgame. We also have people within our population who are sympathisers, who feel let down, who are susceptible to indoctrination. So the entire complexion of terrorism in India is completely different from what we see in the UK or the US or any other country.
NDTV: But in the Abu Jundal case, he was senior-most. Usually, they hire locals as paid operators. However Abu Jundal was a senior operative. So was Abu Jundal a new kind of Indian terrorist in that sense?
Neeraj Kumar: No, I would say he represents that local connection in the 26/11 case. He represents a man who was engaged in training people in the local dialect, interacting with the press, targeting certain selected iconic places and so on. So he is the local link and through him we are discovering that there are others as well.
NDTV: So you are saying there are other people like him who are strategists who just don't, let's say, plant bombs, but are actual strategists?
Neeraj Kumar: Yes, and some people who may be even more important than he is.
NDTV: It is interesting to see this comes at a time when this week we have had a convention in Delhi, where we've heard that politicians, and various intellectuals talked about the fact that Police often target Muslims and brand innocent Muslims as terrorists. We've had the mother of an alleged terrorist, Fasih, who said that Muslim boys are often picked up. We saw Batla House and the repercussions of that. As a police officer, Delhi's top cop, how do you react to allegations like that?
Neeraj Kumar: Every mother would react the way Fasih's mother has reacted or the way Zabbi's next of kin have reacted. It is natural. For a mother, first comes her son and then anything else. The first reaction would always be by saying that he cannot be involved in anti-national activities. Whatever they claim has to be seen in the larger context of what has come during the investigation, what has he said and what has been discovered on the basis of what he has said. It has to be weighed. This weighing will be done by the courts. We are answerable. Our investigations undergo a very severe and serious judicial scrutiny.
NDTV: As a police officer does it frustrate you when politics are being played over convictions? In the Parliament attack we have seen the case of Afzal Guru and the controversy over whether he will be hanged or not, in spite of the fact that the court had convicted him. Does politics frustrate you?
Neeraj Kumar: We have to live with it. Our job is to investigate, investigate impartially, investigate efficiently and collect evidence, which stands the scrutiny of the courts.
NDTV: But does it send out the wrong message? Does it make the policeman's job much more difficult? Does it give the impression that India's security agencies are soft?
Neeraj Kumar: No our security agencies are not soft at all. We live in a milieu where there would be reactions, be it reactions from family, reactions from political parties, be it reactions from NGOs, it is all part of the ballgame.
NDTV: Let me go across to questions. We spoke about Delhi as a terror target and some people from Sarojini Nagar market have these questions to ask you.
Question: Sarojini Nagar market is one of the most important markets of all. Till the time they have a control over encroachments in this area, we would always be in a threat. The police have barricaded the area. CCTVs function sometimes and not at others. 26 cameras are installed in the market, but yet we are always under some threat or the other.
NDTV: Everyone wants their problems to be regarded as the top priority. But the CCTV camera issue is a big one. I remember even the Chief Minister had said that she does not even have the power to transfer a police constable, why not ask her. Many of it is a dichotomy that the Delhi Police is not even politically accountable to the people, Government of Delhi. Do you think that this is sometimes a bad thing? This is an odd situation.
Neeraj Kumar: I am surprised when you say that we are not accountable to the people. Right at the beginning of the programme, you had said that they were our bosses. We have to answer them on a daily basis, in public opinion, but not in transfers and postings. We prize ourselves in claiming that ours is the only police force in the country where the political influence is minimum in man-management. This is on account of the fact that we are virtually left alone. Why should transferring a constable be such an issue? If someone needs to be transferred for a lapse, the Commissioner Police is there, the JCP (Range) is there, the DCP (District) is there. They are all there to do that. So someone just needs to come up and say that so and so has not worked up to the mark, or has been indulging in malpractices, and it is for us to transfer. Why should anyone else want this power?
NDTV: That is actually a very important point. Why should politicians be involved in the question of transfers at all? But on the issue of political interference, there is always an amount of discomfort among the average citizen over the amount of security that VIPs get. A recent Home Ministry report for the country said that there were three policemen per VIP, while there was only one policeman per 761 citizens in the country. How do you balance that? For VIPs, security is a status symbol as well.
Neeraj Kumar: We need to understand that VVIPs have to be guarded. The President of the USA, wherever he moves, a huge contingent of security moves. Our people never talk about that. His bulletproof car arrives long before he does, his hordes of security people arrive much before him. We always say, oh what an excellent security system the US President has. VVIPs have to be protected because they are our representatives. If they are allowed to remain unguarded and they are harmed, that MP or VVIP is not just any citizen. He represents millions of people. So we have to guard them. At the same time, we should see that it is done in an efficient way and unnecessary deployment of people isn't there. We keep doing that.
NDTV: Well I have an MP with me who has a question to ask you. Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP joins us. Mr. Rudy, go ahead with your question for the new Police Commissioner.
Mr Rudy: In Mumbai, if traffic has to go left, it moves in that direction. Unlike in Delhi, everyone will enter any lane and turn in any side. Most of the police officers have this problem in Delhi, that they are repository of systems, sorry not talking in your context, but they know Delhi, they have seen Delhi and they run Delhi. Most of the officers don't listen to it, I think hearing that thing will be a helpful because we are not in a position to argue with officers, whether it is a sub inspector on a road or an ACP or a DCP. Delhi Police is best is what we say, but this doesn't mean that a hearing is not given.
Neeraj Kumar: No we are not arguing. I am sorry if I have given you that impression. When we discuss what we are doing, we try to understand some problems. No, your point of going left, that is improper lane driving or improper traffic management, which is unacceptable. What I was saying is in Delhi left turns are free. It is not so in other countries, and the simple reason is that we have to take into an account the pedestrians. But I have taken your point and I have no desire to argue as a repository of wisdom. In all humanity I wish to tell you that I, and most of us, take pride in the fact that in our profession we do have a bit of knowledge, like I would never dispute the knowledge which Mr Rudy has in politics, I can never match up to that.
NDTV: Rajiv, thanks so much and for the great passion in the questions, which is something, really I think, has taken up your thinking and mind as well. But now I would like to go to another sad case that we talk about, on the outskirts of Delhi and the Delhi border, Gurgaon and Noida. So much happens over there, which has huge issues of drunk driving. We have a young man and the very sad case that he lost his wife, who was pregnant, Kshama. Thank you Shailesh for joining us at this difficult point of time
Shailesh Shetty: What is the experience like when someone from your family, or you, have to deal with the police? What is the experience, like somehow the belief is, that do the police favour the person behind the wheel or with the victim or his family who are suffering?
NDTV: Mr Kumar whatever has happened in Gurgaon is not directly under you at all, but this story, in the last year of television reporting, is that I have spoken to family after family, and you see the people after the crime simply walking away on bail, and your whole life or the family is destroyed because of this. So what would you say to Shailesh today?
Neeraj Kumar: Drunk and driving is a serious issue in our city as well as in Gurgaon. Here again I believe that just an enforcement of prosecution will not help. What, for instance, we are doing immediately? We are interacting with all the pub owners and night club owners and telling them that, look you are serving drinks to people, but you must warn them that if they do not have anyone else to drive for them, then they will be spotted, they will be prosecuted. And now it's the court's rule that drunken driving is dangerous and the man goes to jail and many people have gone to jail. So drunken driving is at the forefront of our enforcement strategy. And this will be again in an intensive way, there will be traffic police, there will be local police and there will also be police control room vans. So outside the pubs we will spot these people; will prosecute them and we will make sure that they are brought to book. Now I would just like to tell Shailesh, that whatever has happened in Gurgaon could have happened in Delhi. My heartfelt sympathies and all I can say is that even though it is out of my jurisdiction, but I will take details of your case from NDTV, and will speak to my counterpart and assure that justice is done.
NDTV: Shailesh I think that is what an assurance is, there, that sometimes putting pressure at the right place helps. Not sometimes, always sadly in Delhi and Gurgaon. Thank you so much for joining us tonight and we will give the details to Mr Kumar and we will follow this case as well. Thank you for joining us tonight.
You said that one of your big priorities will be women. I have somebody also joining us, who is also concerned about the safety of women. Well let's go across to people of Delhi and see what they have to ask. I think these are some of the things about which Delhi is concerned.
NDTV: But a Rs 100 bribe to a traffic constable, why does it seem that the Delhi police can be bought with Rs 100?
Neeraj Kumar: What he means that Rs 100 for red light jumping is a very, very small amount, even though he is taking. As a fine it is only Rs 100, but if he is taking it as a bribe then that is a serious matter. They wish to contact us and inform us such things. My email address is always on the newspapers. They can write to me directly and we will look into it.
NDTV: I think that last aspect, that would you even let your daughter go late at night, and many people have written in to me when they knew that you are coming on my show, that I will not come to Delhi and that my four-year-old daughter will not be safe in growing up in Delhi. How will you answer to this?
Neeraj Kumar: I will definitely suggest my daughter not to venture out at odd hours in areas, which are poorly lit, areas which are depressed. Depressed areas means, which have high probability of incident happening and we all need to take precautions. For instance, we take precautions for our home safety, by putting grills. We get our servants verified. So an area, which is vulnerable and going at night is more vulnerable, so if my daughter is to step out in such area or time when incidents can occur, I will say don't go.
NDTV: But Sir, you can see rapes are happening in broad daylight. We have seen that the mindset of the Delhi Police is, even we have seen an expose at NDTV also, that often even if policemen is investigating the rape, the attitude is that the girl deserves it. She may have gone to the pub drinking, so that after that if there is some sexual assault she invited it herself. The mindset of the Police is not actually of the same as the people they are policing.
Neeraj Kumar: No I am sorry I beg to differ. Rape cases are investigated by women officers, and lot of attention is paid to them. It may be relevant to point out that 97 per cent of the rape cases takes place inside the homes and by the people whom are known to the victim. So it is a rape if some stranger has caught hold of the woman and raped a few. The last case, which took place at Dhaula Kuan, we have solved it. And I am proud to inform you that it is heading towards conviction and we hope that the culprits will be convicted.
NDTV: Well hopefully we'll see that change in the next 13 months and those words will translate into action. Just to ask of course, your last posting was Tihar Jail and one very interesting aspect is that you had many, many, the lal batti culture, perhaps in Tihar Jail as you had A Raja. You had Kanimozhi. You had Suresh Kalmadi. You had Anna Hazare for one day. You had Bangaru Lakshman. Did it surprise you, as a police officer, to actually see some of India's top politicians inside Tihar Jail?
Neeraj Kumar: No, why should it surprise me?
NDTV: How did you deal with it?
Neeraj Kumar: I mean we dealt with them very fairly in the sense that we took utmost precautions regarding their safety. Because, inside a prison, there are all kinds of people, you know. There are hardened criminals, there are violent criminals; there are psychopaths. So first job was to protect them. And protect them by ensuring that they are lodged in a place where others cannot access them. But having done that, everything else was the same. They all slept on the floors, they all, you know, bathed with cold water. They all, during summer months they could, they had to make do with the fans that we provided. Nothing extra was given. No coolers were given. No air conditioners were given. Never was an impression given to other inmates, that they were being treated differently. So, you, you may have known that not a single complaint of that kind ever came.
NDTV: The city never sleeps Sir. Does the Police Commissioner manage to sleep at night?
Neeraj Kumar: I do. Let me be honest.
NDTV: Well, it's good because we need you fresh and alert for the challenges ahead. Thank you so much, Mr Neeraj Kumar for joining us.
Neeraj Kumar: It has been a pleasure Sonia, thank you.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
