The Delhi High Court on Wednesday took strong objection to the Delhi Police’s intransigence in not revealing the names of the police officers who were on duty in the PCR vans on the route the bus on which a physiotherapy student was gang raped last month had passed through.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Darmar Murugesan and Justice V.K. Jain also took the city police to task for taking disciplinary action only against junior officers for dereliction of duty on that night and sparing senior officers.
The police have so far suspended two Assistant Commissioners of Police, one of the PCR unit and the other of the Delhi Traffic Police.
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The Bench pulled up the police after going through the status report, which the investigating agency earlier filed. Last month, it had asked them to file a status on the investigation of the case, as well as provide the list of PCR vans and the officers on duty on the route on which the student was raped.
“Why have only the ACP, and not the DCP and the Police Commissioner, been taken to task?” the Bench observed after going through the status report.
On plying of vehicles with tinted glasses in the Capital, the Bench asked why the Joint Commissioner of Traffic was not taken to task. Stating that it would pass an order in the matter on Thursday, the Bench said the police could not blame the court for it.
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Earlier in his submission, Dayan Krishnan appearing for the Delhi Police submitted that there were only two PCR vans on duty on the route, and it could not be said that the bus had passed by them.
Thereupon, the Bench observed, “Earlier you said there were three PCR vans on duty on the route that night, and now your are saying that there were only two vans on duty.”
The court had, on December 21, pulled up the Delhi Police for being “evasive” on providing details of the officers who were on duty on the route.
“We have gone through the report and we are not convinced. None of the details of the police officers have been mentioned,” the Bench said had then observed.
The court had asked the police to give details of the police personnel who were on duty during those 40 minutes during which the culprits sexually assaulted the woman on the route between Munirka and Mahipalpur flyover.
The Bench later said that now that the police had filed a charge-sheet in the case, it would not monitor the investigation. The court is hearing the matter suo motu after taking a note of it on December 19.