After 10 Ex-PS officers, including former Mumbai Police commissioner Julio Ribeiro, questioned Delhi Police’s probe into Delhi riots cases,and accused them of implicating anti-CAA protesters while being lenient to others associated with the ruling party, another group of former IPS officers has come out in support of the Delhi Police.
In a statement issued on Friday, 26 Ex-IPS officers said that they were “surprised at the conduct” of a few fellow ex-police personnel who support such kind of “anti-India expression & communal narrative’. They referred to some controversial slogans allegedly raised by former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid, arrested under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) & other serious charges. Khalid’s arrest last Sunday in the riots case has been criticised by many social activists, who have accused Delhi Police of targeting Anti-Govt voices.
The Ex-Plice officers said, “The Delhi Police has every right & duty to investigate the role of any such persons, & custodial investigation is a part of due process of law. The accused has his rights under the law to seek anticipatory bail or regular bail, as the cause may be, & the right to a fair trial where he can prove himself innocent
Ex-Delhi Police commissioner RS Gupta, Ex-UP DGPs RN Singh & Bhanu Pratap Singh, former DGPs of Bihar SK Bhardwaj & Ramesh Chandra Sinha, former Maharashtra DGP Praveen Dixit, ex-DGP of Tripura BL Vohra & Ex-Kerala DGP S Gopinath are among the 26 former IPS officers who have signed the statement.
In the statement, they said that “A section of former police officers cannot usurp for themselves the office of Presiding Officers of the Courts to declare anyone innocent & try to put the police force in bad light. These officers have no right to suspect or question the integrity & professionalism of their successors in the Indian Police Service, & in turn demoralise them".
They said that such “posturing & adverse commentary” may demotivate police officers & dilute their firm resolve to act against criminals, including those who incite communal divide in India by instigating riots.
They added that “We disapprove any statements or gestures by any motivated group of former police officers, which is aimed at defaming the police force & its serving officers, who are performing their duty day & night at great personal risk for the safety of general public".
Last week, noted Ex-IPS officer Ribeiro wrote a letter to Delhi Police chief SN Shrivastava, requesting him to look into the North-East Delhi riots probe & make sure it was impartial. Riberio told the Delhi Police chief that police have failed to act against those who made hate speeches that led to the riots.
After 2 days, 9 Ex-IPS officers, including AS Dulat, former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s office; K Saleem Ali, Ex-CBI special director; Amitabh Mathur, former special secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat & PGJ Nampoothiri, former director general of Gujarat Police, wrote an open letter to Shrivastava, saying they were pained at the police implicating those who spoke & joined protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but letting off the hook those who instigated violence & are associated with the ruling party.
On Tuesday, Shrivastava responded to questions raised over the riots inquiryby Riberio & wrote to him, saying the investigation was being carried out without any discrimination on caste or religion, & was backed by documentary & scientific evidence.
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