Retired IPS officer and founder secretary of NGO Prayas, Amod Kanth, on Sunday lashed out at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for “lacking knowledge of law” and demanded law minister Somnath Bharti be sacked.
Addressing the media at Press Club, Kanth, former director general of police and chairman of Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), termed AAP minister’s recent conduct “Talibanesque, goondaism” and said his actions attract several IPC sections.
He said he was “extremely surprised” that despite knowing all the facts, the highly-educated chief minister is unable to understand the illegalities, violation of human rights and embarrassment to the country.
This incident goes very much in line with several other incidents of anarchical conduct, including a recent attack by an unruly crowd, led by an AAP MLA, on the office of an NGO, ‘Sampurna’, operating out of a corporation building, said Kanth. “Needless to mention, these criminal cases are required to be registered and investigated at once and the culprits brought to book and the errant law minister must be asked to go,” he said in a signed statement.
Kanth said on receiving information about African women “being molested, assaulted and searched by a mob led by Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti”, he decided to conduct a personal inquiry. He narrated how he met some of the alleged victims to get first-hand knowledge. The women told him that they were returning from a party and as soon as they left their taxi, “they were accosted by a crowd led by a person, now identified to be Bharti”. Kanth claimed that one of the victims even alleged that she was “hit by the gentleman (Bharti) and sustained an injury (bulge) on her forehead”.
He said he took the women to meet DCP South. “All of them heard stories of the two extremely traumatized ladies. I was told by the DCP that their statements had been recorded and medical examinations carried out.”
Explaining the procedure, Kanth said “the raid could not have been conducted under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 which requires a ‘special police officer’ or a ‘trafficking police officer’ ‘recording the grounds of his belief to enter and search such premises’ without a warrant.”
“These women were wrongfully confined by the crowd for nearly two hours and the police was forced to take them to a hospital. These women were also criminally assaulted and were forcibly subjected to cavity searches (private parts) and made to pass urine while the said crowd accompanied throughout. All these women were fully aware that there was neither a trace of drugs nor any specific complaint information about them indulging in prostitution or any illegal activities. Yet, they were subjected to extreme atrocity, humiliation and hardship by the unlawful mob,” said Kanth in his statement.
(Source: IANS)
