HC directs Delhi Police chief to look into CM house vandalism case
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 25 Apr, 2022 10:20 AM
New Delhi, April 25 (IANS) Observing there was a serious lapse of security in the vandalism incident that happened outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's house, the Delhi High Court on Monday directed the city Police Commissioner to look into the matter.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla noted that the interim status report filed by the Delhi Police shows that the police force failed to prevent miscreants from reaching the residence of the Chief Minister and vandalising the area.
"In our view, the security lapse is serious and should be looked at by the Commissioner of Delhi Police and he should inquire into three aspects, whether bandobast was adequate, reasons for the failure of arrangements, fix responsibility for the admitted lapse," it said.
Accordingly, the court asked the police to file a further status report within two weeks, disclosing aspects with regard to the review of security arrangements and what further steps have been taken, so that such incidents don't recur in the future.
The bench said the status report was to be filed in a sealed cover, as it posted the matter for further hearing on May 17.
AAP lawmaker Saurabh Bhardwaj had moved the High Court seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to undertake an independent criminal probe into the incident which took place outside CM Kejriwal's house.
Around 70 people were detained for creating ruckus outside Kejriwal's residence during a protest that was spearheaded by the Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha over his remarks in the Delhi Assembly on 'The Kashmir Files' movie that were deemed as "against the Kashmiri Pandit community" among the saffron clan.
Channi expressed regret while participating in a virtual meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi with Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors/Administrators of states and UTs to review the prevailing Covid situation as well as the ongoing vaccination drive.
Unveiling the first set of plans in his Punjab Model with focus on resurrection of Punjab, Sidhu, in the absence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and his Cabinet colleagues, told the media here: "Punjab Model is people's model, an effort to give a roadmap to return power to people."
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that he "personally" feels that alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab had cost the BJP heavily.
India on Tuesday recorded 1,68,063 new Covid cases, taking the total tally to 8,21,446. Although the fresh infections were 6.4 per cent less than Monday when the country logged 1,79,723, the weekly positivity rate has climbed to 8.85 per cent and the daily positivity rate has declined to 10.64 per cent. On the other hand, 4,461 Omicron cases were recorded from 28 states.
Delhi reported a 25 per cent surge in Covid-19 cases after recording 19,166 fresh cases. With this, the infection tally has climbed to 15,68,896. Meanwhile, the city has recorded 17 Covid deaths on the second consecutive day, pushing the death toll to 25,177.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
