New Delhi, July 9 "Why is no criminal afraid of Delhi Police these days? This is because criminals are well aware that the Delhi Police is busy doing the BJPs bidding in protecting the hooligans and criminals that the BJP is harbouring," Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi had said on May 9 in a press briefing.
But what prompted her to make such critical remarks about a law enforcement agency?
The issue was about BJP leader Tajinderpal Singh Bagga being arrested by the police of AAP-ruled Punjab from his residence in Delhi. When he was being taken to Punjab by road, the Delhi Police swung into action and stopped the Punjab Police's cavalcade midway in Haryana, a BJP-ruled state.
Both the parties the AAP and the BJP levelled allegations against each other of misusing the police in their respective states to settle political scores.
It was not the first time that the saffron clan faced a backlash from an Opposition party.
The police in the national capital has been accused by the Opposition members umpteen number of times of muzzling their and every other voice that tries to corner the present dispensation in one or the other way.
The latest case was of Mohammed Zubair, fact-checking website Alt-News' co-founder, who was arrested for a controversial post on Twitter that he had posted around 4 years ago.
It was Zubair who first shared the now suspended BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma's alleged controversial remarks that prompted several Islamic nations to condemn them.
The Opposition lost no chance of training its guns at the Centre and the Delhi Police, and accused them of curbing free speech and targeting those who are exposing the BJP. "Every person exposing BJP's hate, bigotry and lies is a threat to them. Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more. Truth ALWAYS triumphs over tyranny," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said soon after the news of the fact-checker's arrest broke.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that Alt-News and Zubair have been in the forefront of exposing the "bogus claims of the "Vishguru", who has struck back with a vengeance characteristic of him. "Delhi Police, reporting to the Union Home Minister, has long lost any pretensions of professionalism and independence," he said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police
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