Former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit writes to L-G Anil Baijal, expresses concern over "Criminals having free run"

Former Delhi Chief Minister and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit has written to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal expressing her concerns over the "increasing crimes" in the region. The letter comes after a Sikh tempo driver was assaulted by police personnel in Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi. 

She sought the intervention of the Governor to make the Delhi Police "more efficient" and alert in checking such incidents and thus avert the increasing crimes.

"In the past few days, Delhi has witnessed many horrible crimes, including murders, robberies, extortion, snatching, shootings and acid attacks, with the Delhi Police standing as mute spectators when criminals were having a free run across the capital," Dikshit wrote, according to the Delhi Congress statement. "Shooting incidents, including over a dozen encounters with the police, have resulted in at least 16 deaths and 22 injuries," she added.

In a blame game between the police and the tempo driver, both accused each other of beginning the assault followed by which both retaliated with physical assault. The tempo driver was accused of pulling out a sword to attack the police personnel whereas the police alleged that the driver was driving recklessly and pulled out the sword to attack the police when they tried to confront him. 

Videos of the attack, however, came in bits and pieces, one showing the cops thrashing the driver Gurujeet Singh with lathis whereas another showed the driver chasing the police with a sword in his hand. The incident assumed a political angle after BJP MLA and member of Shiromani Akali Dal Manjinder Singh Sirsa, alleged that the tempo driver was attacked because he was wearing a turban, and sat in protest outside Mukherjee Nagar police station demanding the authorities involved in the assault to be sacked. Soon, a large number of Sikh protestors gathered outside the police station.  

The protesters blocked the main highway in the national capital that leads towards Haryana and Punjab.

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In a video from late Sunday night, an ACP-rank officer could be seen being chased by protestors outside the Mukherjee Nagar police station. He had gone there to pacify the protesters.

Three policemen including two assistant sub-inspectors have been suspended for their unprofessional conduct in handling the matter, police said. FIRs have been registered on both the cops and the Sikh man, for assaulting each other. 

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