In India’s ‘rape capital’ 7,200 cops guard ‘VIPs’!

A smugly smiling, some would say smirking, Commissioner of Delhi Police and a Union Home Secretary who kept on shielding the former from journalists asking tough questions together sought to portray India’s capital city as entirely safe for women as tens of thousands of people, outraged by last Sunday night’s horrifying gang-rape of a young woman, took to the streets across the country.
Men and women gathered in huge numbers at various places in Delhi to protest the callous indifference of Delhi Police towards increasing crimes against women. Similar protests erupted in various cities.
Sunday night’s incident has made headlines around the world, confirming once again what has been known all along: Delhi is the rape capital of India. Ironically, maintaining law and order in Delhi, ruled by the Congress, is the responsibility of the Congress-led UPA Government. Delhi Police reports to the Union Home Ministry.
Late Friday afternoon, Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar, who has been busy most of his tenure lobbying for the job of CBI Director, rattled off statistics, unmindful of the fact that they indicate a steep rise in crimes against women, especially rape.
Home Secretary RK Singh benignly, who initiated the Press conference with a lengthy praise for Delhi Police, kept on intervening to repeat that Delhi Police is “Doing a great job”.
Going by the statistics provided by Neeraj Kumar, Delhi has registered a whopping 17 per cent rise in rape cases this year, with 661 such incidents being reported till December 15, compared to 564 incidents of rape during same period last year.
Neeraj Kumar tried to downplay the rise in numbers by saying that’s on account of more and more victims of rape stepping forward to report the crime. “These numbers are high. (But) contrary to popular belief, more and more women are becoming empowered to lodge or report (such matters),” he said.
On the streets, women denounced Delhi Police in one voice. Woman after woman interviewed by newspersons said they do not trust Delhi Police, that they believe the police’s indifference and callous attitude are to blame for criminals becoming increasingly bold, that they are not persuaded by assurances provided by the police.
Therefore, it remains a mystery as to what makes the police chief believe “women are becoming empowered to lodge complaints”. Clearly, crimes against women are on the rise and equally clearly, Delhi Police and the Union Home Ministry to which it reports are reluctant to accept their all-round failure in checking this shocking rise.
In 2010, as many as 489 rape cases were reported while for 2009 the figure was 459, which showed that this crime has been increasing by leaps and bounds over the previous years.
Neeraj Kumar has another explanation for the rising crime graph: The rise in population.
Asked if Neeraj Kumar is going to take moral responsibility for last Sunday’s ghastly crime and step down, the Home Secretary defended the police chief, saying his department “has performed exceedingly well”.
The Home Secretary also disclosed that in a city where residents live in fear of criminals and women are treated as easy prey by rapists and assorted criminals, full protection and safety are ensured for ‘VIPs’ with the help of “specially recruited” policemen.
Delhi needs a quantum increase in the number of policemen on patrol duty. That urgent requirement has eluded the attention of the Union Home Ministry which has sanctioned the special recruitment of 7,400 police personnel to protect ‘VIPs’. On any given day 7,200 of them are deployed for this ‘duty’.
That perhaps explains why politicians and bureaucrats are indifferent to the plight of Delhi’s hapless residents.
Confronted by a battery of angry journalists refusing to buy into the ‘all is fine’ line that was sought to be peddled at the Press conference, the Home Secretary promised to file the charge sheet in the case “quickly” and seek maximum punishment – life imprisonment – for the accused.
RK Singh said the police would seek day-to-day hearing of the case for expeditious trial so that the accused could be convicted soon. “With the evidence gathered so far – circumstantial, forensic and others – we are confident that we will be able to convict the accused,” said Singh.
For all his promise to spruce up policing in Delhi, the Home Secretary is possibly unaware that between Sunday night and Friday evening, Delhi Police has not even cracked down on the illegal use of dark films on the glass panes of cars and buses which help criminals avoid detection while committing crimes in moving or parked vehicles.
On Friday morning anti-corruption activist and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi tweeted: “SOS for police, 3 SCHOOL BUSES, WHITE COLOR spotted on South Delhi roads this morn with dark glasses+curtains, DL1PB 7553 DLIP0537, DLIVA6439.” It’s not known whether the police responded to her ‘SOS’.
Earlier on Friday, Delhi High Court slammed Delhi Police for being ‘evasive’ in providing details of the status of its inquiry into Sunday’s crime which has stunned and outraged people across India.
A High Court bench headed by Chief Justice D Murugesan said, “In the (earlier) order, the Police Commissioner was also directed to file a report giving details of the police officers patrolling in the area and the action taken in this aspect … On this aspect a report is filed… We have gone through the report and we are not convinced. None of the details of the police officers have been mentioned.”
The bench ordered, “We make it clear such a report, giving all the details, be filed without any delay.”
According to a late evening report, the 23-year-old woman who was gang raped in a moving bus on Sunday night has shown mixed response to medication, doctors said Friday. The woman, who is admitted at Safdurjung Hospital, is now off the ventilator and is breathing spontaneously, they said.
“She has shown mixed response. She has shown some signs of improvement and some signs of deterioration,” BD Athani, Medical Superintendent of Safdurjung Hospital, told mediapersons.
Measures taken by Delhi police 

• All bars and discotheques in Delhi will now be shut by 1 am.
• Vehicles with tinted windows are not being allowed into Delhi.
• Police will now verify auto and taxi drivers and they will have to wear badges that indicate they are authorised.
• Privately-owned chartered buses are being checked and impounded for illegally public transport work.
• Plainclothes policemen are looking out for loitering cars and buses and people who are consuming alcohol in vehicles.
• Police is making photo IDs and licenses of drivers mandatory in autos and buses.
• All buses and auto rickshaws in Delhi will be fitted with Global Positioning Service or GPS.