NEW DELHI :
Delhi police end 11-hr-long protest
IN unprecedented protests by Delhi police, thousands of its personnel on Tuesday laid siege outside the Police Headquarters for 11 hours and staged a virtual revolt sparked by two attacks on their colleagues before calling off their stir following multiple appeals including from their chief. The protests in which families of the personnel also took to streets were withdrawn in the night after an assurance by senior officers that their grievances will be addressed. Addressing the protesters, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Satish Golcha urged them to end their stir and resume duty, while assuring them that a review petition will be filed against the Delhi High Court order in connection with a clash between cops and lawyers at the Tis Hazari Courts Complex.
Delhi Police has a strength of over 80,000 personnel. Ordering a judicial inquiry by one of its retired judges into the clash, the High Court at a special sitting on November 3 suspended a police official and transferred two senior police officials during pendency of the investigations. Golcha said that the injured policemen will get an ex-gratia of at least Rs 25,000. The unprecedented protests were triggered by two attacks on their colleagues, one on Monday and another on Saturday after a parking dispute between an on-duty policeman and a lawyer which led to at least 20 security personnel and several advocates being injured.
Two FIRs were registered against a lawyer, who was seen in a video hitting a uniformed policeman on a motorcycle with his elbow and slapping him outside the Saket District Court. Shouting slogans like “We Want Justice” and “Go Back, Go Back” as their senior officers appealed for calm, the surging crowd of protesters, some in uniform and some in civvies, gathered outside the Police Headquarters in ITO in the morning itself and were unrelenting in their demand as the hours passed. By evening, many of their family members started moving towards India Gate in an effort to spread the agitation. “Delhi Police officers are on duty around the clock so that the people can celebrate every festival without fear. But while making those sacrifices, they get thrashed on the roads.
Don’t we have feelings or any rights?” asked Munesh Dahiya, the wife of a police officer. Faced with the angry crowds wearing black bands, Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik came out of his office to assure them that their concerns will be addressed. “We have to behave like a disciplined force. The Government and the people expect us to uphold the law, it is our big responsibility. I urge you to resume duty,” Patnaik told the police personnel. “The last few days have been testing for us. A judicial enquiry is underway and I request you to have faith in the process,” he told the gathering. He later told journalists that efforts were on to pacify the law enforcers and senior police officers were trying to resolve the issues. “We have to first save the honour of our khakhi.
Only then will we report for duty,” said a policeman. Delhi Police has a strength of over 80,000 personnel. Holding up placards with slogans such as “We are human in police uniforms”, “We are not punching bags” and “Protectors Need Protection”, the policemen and policewomen urged their seniors to stand with them to save the honour of the uniform. “No police officer nor any politician went to the hospital to check on our injured colleagues. It is disappointing and demoralising for us,” said a woman constable on the condition of anonymity. Recalling a similar lawyer-cop clash way back in 1988, many in the crowd remembered former IPS officer Kiran Bedi who was then at the heart of the controversy.
Some were carrying a big poster of former IPS officer Kiran Bedi and now Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, chanting slogans like “Kiran Bedi sherni hamari” and “Our Commissioner should be like Kiran Bedi”. MHA closely monitoring Delhi situation, police submits report: THE Centre is closely monitoring the situation in Delhi where a section of police personnel and their families are staging protests demanding justice in the wake of clashes between lawyers and police at Tis Hazari court here, a top Home Ministry official said on Tuesday.