The Union Government on Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that a departmental inquiry has been started against seven Delhi Police personnel to find out whether there was any dereliction of duty on their part during the gang-rape of a physiotherapy student in a moving bus in December last.
Counsel for the Union Ministry informed a Division Bench of Justice Darmar Murugesan and Justice Jayant Nath that the police personnel facing the inquiry also included those policemen who were on duty in the PCR van which was patrolling the area through which the bus had passed during the commission of the crime.
Meanwhile, counsel for the Delhi Police informed the Bench that a training programme had been chalked out to sensitise policemen from the constable to the inspector level on gender aspects and crime against women.
Five days in a month had been earmarked for sensitising the personnel on gender aspects, counsel for the city police said, adding that they would also be trained for one day in a month over the next three months about crime against women.
While making strong observations over the brutal sexual assault on a minor girl here last month, the Court had stated that the city police should identify areas in which police officers could be trained to make them more sensitive to deal with such crimes.
The Court had then asked the city police to give a serious thought to train the police personnel on the two aspects in the backdrop of the reporting in the media that the officers investigating the rape of the minor girl had conducted themselves in an insensitive manner.
The Bench has been hearing the matter suo motu. It had taken up for hearing the gang-rape of the physiotherapy student suo motu last year.