Bassi says not upset over exclusion from CIC list

Delhi Police chief B.S. Bassi on Friday said that "it doesn't matter" to him if he was not considered for the post of information commissioner after his retirement at the end of this month.

"It doesn't matter to me," Bassi told reporters here on the day the government held a meeting to select three information commissioners in the Central Information Commisson. The selection panel was headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sources said the government had finalized three names - former Information and Broadcasting secretary Bimal Julka, former special director in Intelligence Bureau D.P. Sinha and former IAS officer Amitava Bhattacharya of the Gujarat cadre.

Sources said Bassi had been a contender for the post and the decision to drop his candidature followed opposition from Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who referred to the criticism of Delhi Police during two days of violence in Patiala House Court complex in the hearing case relating to Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

Congress had demanded Bassi's removal as Delhi police commissioner over the alleged mishandling of JNU protests and violent incidents that followed.

Police has come in for flak for slapping sedition charges against Kanhaiya Kumar as well as for its inaction during the violence in the Patiala House Court on Monday and Wednesday when some slogan-shouting lawyers attacked JNU students and journalists.

Kanhaiya Kumar was also assaulted in the court even as Bassi consistently denied this.