Plea in HC to increase strength of Delhi Police to tackle crime

A plea was filed in the Delhi High Court Monday seeking direction to increase the sanctioned strength of police force in consonance with the demand of increasing population and crime rate in the national capital.

The petition by an NGO sought direction to the Delhi government for setting up uniform and updated guidelines and rules for appropriate training of new recruits to the Delhi Police force as well as to train the existing police personnel with the prevalent situation in the city.

The plea came up before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar which listed it for hearing on Tuesday along with another petition seeking an independent CBI probe into the matter.

The plea alleged that upgradation of police was required in view of 16 killings in Delhi within a span of 30 days due to "non-vigilant Delhi Police".

It also referred to the June 16 incident of Mukherjee Nagar area, where there was a clash between a tempo driver and police personnel and several video clips of the brawl went viral on social media.

In one of the videos, the driver was purportedly seen chasing a policemen with a sword, following which other policemen arrived at the scene and thrashed the driver and his son with batons while overpowering them.

"With these kinds of incidents, general public of Delhi is exposed to the risk of safety, therefore, the Delhi Police should ensure safe custody of weapons in the hands of public and upgradation of training imparted to the police staff," the petition said.