NEW DELHI: AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh lashed out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, demanding his resignation for ‘failing’ to contain the communal violence. While slamming Shah’s speech in the Lower House on Wednesday, absolving Delhi Police of blame and hinting at an Opposition hand in four days of clashes and arson which racked the national capital, Singh claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was directly responsible for inciting and instigating the riots. Responding to Singh’s charges, the home minister said there was no need to politicise the issue.
Even on previous occasions, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party had trained its guns on Shah, claiming that since he took over as home minister, the law and order situation in the national capital has been called into question. The Delhi Police comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). In a fiery speech, Singh accused Kapil Mishra and other BJP leaders of stoking communal passions with their inflammatory remarks and questioned the home minister’s silence in the matter.
“Just as Amit Shah hasn’t spoken a word on the hate speeches by BJP leaders, the Delhi Police, on his watch, was unmoved for four days as the city burned. He has no moral right to remain home minister. He lied when he said that the rioting stopped on February 24,” Singh said. The home minister, said, “I held a meeting with the Delhi CM and all senior officers of his government (after the riots broke). However, after the rioting stopped on February 25, they (AAP) demanded that the Army be called in. Where was the need for it?” On Shah’s claim that 336 people from Uttar Pradesh crossed over to Delhi to foment violence, Singh said, “Who were those people from UP? What action has the BJP government (in UP) taken against them?”
2 PFI men in police custody
A Delhi court on Thursday sent the Delhi president of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its state secretary to police remand. They were nabbed for their alleged involvement in anti-CAA protests and the communal riots in northeast Delhi. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purushottam Pathak sent Islamic group PFI’s Delhi President Parvez and state secretary Illiyas to seven days’ police remand after being produced in court by Delhi Police’s Special Cell.
7 nabbed for cop’s murder
Seven people have been arrested in connection with the killing of a Delhi Police head constable during clashes over the new citizenship law in northeast district last month, police said. Head constable Ratan Lal died of bullet injuries in the clashes in Gokalpuri on February 24. “We learnt that the spot where the incident took place was the venue for an anti-CAA protest. A conspiracy was hatched to attack police,” an officer said.