Police no help, send us paramilitary to guard magistrates, Arvind Kejriwal writes to Rajnath Singh

In a letter to Singh last month, Kejriwal cited an incident on September 24 when BJP MP Udit Raj’s secretary allegedly barged into a district magistrate’s office in Northwest Delhi and “manhandled” the officer.

According to the CM, all 11 district magistrates of Delhi had met Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and details of such incidents were conveyed to Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.

Kejriwal wrote, “You would be aware of the highly condemnable incident of September 24, 2015 when more than 100 henchmen, led by the secretary to the BJP and MP from Northwest Delhi, Udit Raj, barged into the office of district magistrate (northwest) and attacked and manhandled him.”

[related-post]

“Only a few days prior to this, the sub-divisional magistrates (of Narela and Mehrauli) were also threatened in their offices for discharging their duties. There is reliable information that these incidents are happening as a result of action taken by our honest officers against encroachers, criminals and other vested interests creating public nuisance,” he said.

Police had registered a case under sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 342 (wrongful confinement), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested Raj’s personal secretary Parminder and two more suspects. They are now out on bail.

“We are quite taken aback by this turn of events and non-provision of security by the Delhi Police… It has been two weeks since the incident. If it cannot provide security to the government’s critical field offices, how will the the state police cater to the security need of the entire city?” stated the letter.

“The offices of the district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates are the symbols of the state at the cutting-edge level. …They have to take such decisions in public interest which end up damaging the financial and others interests of vested lobbies. It is important that these officers are provided a secure and safe working environment…,” it said.
“Keeping in view the highly unfortunate position and the fact that Delhi government has no security agency of its own, I would request you to provide us two companies of any paramilitary force such as the CRPF, CISF or ITBP for round-the-clock security to officers and offices of district magistrates, sub-divisional magistrates and additional district magistrates,” it added.