Opinion Death of Anjali Singh: A decade after promised reforms, Delhi police is Centre’s instrument, not people’s shield
Delhi police personnel deployment is heavily focused on “protecting” VIP residents of Lutyens Delhi rather than providing safety to women living in the real, crowded and densely populated city.
20-year-old Anjali Singh was killed in Delhi after her scooter was hit by a car, and she was dragged by the vehicle for almost 10 km. (File Photo) 
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This year began on a grim note for Delhi. Some 10 years after the December 2012 rape and murder, the city woke up to its horrors returning with a young woman being dragged under a car to a shocking and gut-wrenching death. This incident is no ordinary slip up. Anjali Singh’s death represents a stark failure in policy, governance, and most unfortunately, Indian society. The 20-year-old victim was reportedly dragged over 13 km for 73 minutes as the accused’s car passed through four police stations. An eyewitness followed the car for an hour, alerted PCRs and the 112 helpline 22 times. But police officers did not respond.
Our collective conscience was shaken to its core in the aftermath of the 2012 case in Delhi, leading to nationwide protests and forcing the government to take steps towards reforms for women’s safety. This year, for the women of Delhi, it seems things are back to square one. We are back on the streets, with candles in our hands, to demand justice all over again. But this time, all the hue and cry is falling on deaf and perhaps arrogant ears.
Public spaces have always displayed hostility towards women. Additionally, the fear of violence significantly affects women’s choices and ability to access opportunities that the city offers and is one of the major reasons behind women’s low participation in the workforce. Thus, our structures ought to be conducive to women’s safety. An integral part of this redesign is the reform of those enlisted to maintain vigil and protect the city — the police.
The Delhi Police doesn’t seem to have learnt its lessons. Worse are the custodians of Delhi Police, sitting inside the Union home ministry and the Delhi LG Secretariat. The fact that control of Delhi Police falls under the ambit of the central government’s Ministry of Home Affairs causes rifts between various political players in the capital. The consequences of this rift are most felt by marginalised groups like women. Hence, the police are not treated as providers of security but as means of suppression to aid the personal and political agendas of the incumbent government. A recent example of this agenda is when the first responder PCR vans got absorbed with the police station beat staff in September 2021, which continues to cause many issues as there have been several discrepancies in response time.
Due to the LG being a quasi-political nominee representing the Centre’s interests in Delhi, his role is more of a puppet than of an administrator with the primary job to provide security to the people of Delhi. Today, Delhi witnesses a mockery where the state police is neither accountable to nor motivated by the will of the people’s first representatives, that is, the elected Delhi government.
It is thus critical to reflect on what the function of the Delhi Police is — to prevent crime, bring justice and protect citizens or to act as VIP security and agents of political compliance? Reporting to an unelected boss, the police cannot be expected to care for the common citizen’s safety. Delhi police personnel deployment is heavily focused on “protecting” the VIP residents of Lutyens Delhi rather than providing safety to women living in the real, crowded and densely populated Delhi.
Rapes increased by 200 per cent between 2012 to 2016. Further, according to Delhi Police data, “in 2019, out of 13,614 cases of rape, dowry deaths, molestation, eve-teasing, dowry cases and abduction registered in Delhi, the conviction rate was mere 5.46 per cent. In 2020, the conviction rate dropped to only 3.35 per cent across 9,924 cases, falling further to only 1.65 per cent in 14,022 cases”. This indicates the Delhi Police’s inefficiency on women’s safety issues.
Some time after the 2012 incident, the Centre initiated the Nirbhaya Fund. It looked like a face saving measure, but there was some hope. The fund rolls out safety schemes to check any untoward incidents against females in public spaces. As of December 2022, 30 per cent of the Fund has still not been utilised. For a party riding on the slogans of development for all, injustice towards women should not be treated as a secondary concern. But what better can you expect from a party whose own local convenor was inside the car that dragged Anjali for miles?
While injustice should never be treated as simply an opportunity to catalyse change, it most certainly demands to be corrected and prevented in the future. In India, the necessity for police reform has long been acknowledged and the conversation continues to come up repeatedly even in contemporary times as we have seen in Anjali Singh’s case. As the operations of the police fall under the authority of the central government, the current structure and organisation takes away from democratic accountability. A step forward to ensure safety and security for citizens especially women in the national capital territory would be for the Delhi Police to be the Delhi government’s jurisdiction and make it accountable to the people.
The writer is a spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party
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