Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar on Monday ruled out his resignation in the wake of alleged police insensitivity in dealing with the child rape case but promised exemplary action against policemen found lax in handling it.
"If my resigning will prevent such depraved action of the society, then I am ready to resign a thousand times. But that is not going to address the problem," he said at a press
conference, the first media interaction after the case of a five-year-old child being raped and brutally assaulted by a neighbour in East Delhi came to light four days ago.
"But that is not going to solve the problem. The problem is one of mental depravity, one of psychopathy, the problem is one of mental sickness and that is not going to be sorted out by anyone resigning," he said.
When a reporter asked him whether he would resign following demands made in the context of the rape case, Kumar asked a counter question, "If you do some wrong reporting does your editor resign?"
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Ready to quit, but will that stop rape: Delhi Police chief
The police commissioner had come under severe scrutiny and demands were made for his removal even during the agitations in protest against police inaction at the time of gang-rape of a girl in a moving bus on December 16 last year.
Asked whether he feels that Delhi Police was doing a bad job, he said "not at all".
"Absolutely," replied Kumar, who is set to retire in July, when asked if he was satisfied with his tenure as Delhi Police chief.
Kumar said police personnel who allegedly offered Rs 2,000 to parents of the child to hush up the case are yet to be identified. He admitted that the police personnel did not act the way they should have done.
On action against policemen who showed insensitivity and did not take prompt action on the complaint of the child's parents, he said the father of the victim was not in a position to identify two police personnel who were said to have been lax when the complaint was made.
"The main allegation was giving of Rs 2,000 by two people, one in uniform and one in plain cloth, to the father of the child to hush up the matter.
"Unfortunately, because the father is too tied up in hospital and is unable to come to the police station and identify those two people. Our own efforts to identify them have not succeeded yet," he said.
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Ready to quit, but will that stop rape: Delhi Police chief
Kumar said after following the due process and holding departmental enquiry "exemplary action" will be taken. "We will make an example of the erring police officers who have not responded or not reacted in the manner in which they are expected," he said.
"As soon as they are identified, they will be suspended from service and a vigilance enquiry will follow. On the basis of vigilance inquiry a regular departmental enquiry would be conducted. We hope to complete this within next 72 hours," he said.
On Friday, Kumar had suspended ACP B S Ahlawat for slapping a girl inside the Swami Dayanand Hospital when she and others were on protest. The five-year-old victim was admitted in the Swami Dayanand Hospital.
SHO Dharampal Singh and sub-inspector Mahavir Singh, who was the first investigating officer, were placed under suspension for alleged dereliction of duty pending an inquiry.
A vigilance inquiry was also ordered into allegations that some policeman offered Rs 2,000 to the rape victim's family for hushing up the case.
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