New Delhi:
A day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ended a 33-hour protest against the city's police after accepting what was seen as a face-saver, his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government put out statistics to justify their campaign for the control of a force they have called "highly compromised and corrupt".
Delhi government sources today said at least 77% complaints on a new anti-corruption helpline have been against the Delhi Police. The helpline encourages citizens to conduct their own sting to catch corrupt officers using their cell phones or spy pen cameras.
Since the helpline number 1031 became functional about a fortnight ago, there have been about 60,000 calls, but AAP sources said most of them were beyond the state government's jurisdiction as they were related to the Delhi Police.
Of about 1200 stings by people, 930 were linked to policemen, says AAP.
The party highlighted the case of an HIV positive person who runs an organisation that helps HIV positive and disadvantaged children run small shops. He was allegedly forced to bribe a policeman who demanded 3,000 per shop. Four policemen were suspended based on his sting operation. AAP claimed that the Chief Minister's Office had to intervene to help the man when he complained again about being hounded by a policeman from a different area.
Arvind Kejriwal sat on a protest on Monday and Tuesday to demand the transfer of policemen who had refused to make arrests ordered by AAP ministers.
One of the ministers, Somnath Bharti, has been accused of trying to bully cops into raiding and arresting African women on the suspicion that they were involved in a sex and drugs racket. One of the women has alleged that men led by the minister entered her home, beat her and molested her.
Mr Kejriwal called of his protest, which he described as a fight for women's safety after the gang-rape of a Danish woman, after a compromise in which two cops were sent on leave.