Bouquets and brickbats for Delhi Police in 2021

Next month, it filed a 187-page charge sheet before a court in the case of alleged sexual assault of a six-year-old girl by a man in east Delhi that took place in August.

From being on the forefront as 'Covid warriors' to facing the wrath of agitating farmers and the violence on Republic Day, 2021 was a challenging year for Delhi Police which was also heavily criticised by city courts for being ''shoddy'' and ''callous'' in its probe into the northeast Delhi violence cases. The Delhi Police was on its toes the entire year handling incidents like the Rohini court shootout, farmer agitation and minor blast near the Israeli embassy.

The clash during a parade called by farmer unions on January 26 in which over 500 police personnel were injured and a protestor died was also among the important episodes witnessed in 2021. Going beyond the call of their duty, the force showed its humanitarian face by arranging and supplying oxygen to individuals as well as hospitals during the deadly second wave of Covid.They even helped in cremation of people and took citizens for vaccination. ''During Covid time, our personnel responded to emergency crisis, provided oxygen cylinders to various hospitals. We also created green corridor for supply and management of oxygen cylinders. That way, the force acted as 'Covid warriors' and saved many lives,'' Delhi Police Spokesperson Chinmoy Biswal said ''Besides, many fraudsters who engaged in black-marketing of oxygen cylinders, concentrators, medicines, duping many on the pretext of arranging beds were strictly dealt with. We did a massive crackdown against them and registered over 600 FIRs and made arrests. With the help of interstate coordination, we also busted several gangs operating from other states in Dehi,'' he said.

''The number of arrests was much higher than before. Recovery of stolen property was also higher in 2021 as compared to the previous year,'' he added. The year also witnessed changes at the helm of the force with the 1984 (Gujarat cadre) senior IPS officer Rakesh Asthana taking over as Delhi Police Commissioner on July 28. Before his appointment, senior IPS officer Balaji Srivastav was given the additional charge of Delhi Police Commissioner after the retirement of SN Shrivastava in June end.

Soon after taking over as the chief of Delhi Police, Asthana brought sweeping changes in the functioning of Delhi Police. The first step towards it was creation of ''Police Secretariat'' at the headquarters with the objective to make a specialised operational wing, which report directly to the chief of the force. This was done to streamline existing processes and not have to spend time taking meetings seeking basic update from the Special CPs.

Then came the first major reshuffle in the force after Asthana took charge in which 40 senior officers including 11 Special Commissioners and 28 DCPs and additional DCPs were transferred. With this reshuffle, women IPS officers started heading six districts out of the 15 in Delhi while three other IPS officers were appointed in Special Cell with an intention to strengthen the policing system and induce new energy. In the same reshuffle, a new unit named perception management and media cell, headed by Special Commissioner of Police Sanjay Beniwal, was also started to coordinate with media and create a positive image of the force by promoting its good work. Making a decisive shift in the postings, eight women officers – who were among the 44 first timers were posted as SHOs for the first time in the force. The development came a day after a shootout took place inside a courtroom in Rohini court which left three people, including gangster Jitender Gogi, dead triggering criticism over the security lapse.

An open house was also started every Friday for redressal of grievances of police personnel at police headquarters and for better surveillance and to more efficiently attending to law and order issues, Delhi Police's control room patrolling vans were also integrated with police stations.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police was heavily criticised for its probe related to northeast Delhi riots by the court. The city court acquitted a man of rioting and dacoity charges in July noting that the prosecution ''miserably failed'' to prove its case. The force saw some success with the first conviction in the northeast riots case in December - a man was convicted for being part of a riotous mob that set a house on fire in February 2020. In a massive operation in September 2021, the Delhi's Special Cell busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two Pak-ISI trained terrorists, who were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra during the festival seasons. In October, it also foiled a major terror plan during the festival season with the arrest of a 40-year-old Pakistani terrorist who allegedly had ISI links and was living in India for over 10 years under a fake identity. The force was also praised for reuniting missing children with their families and taking quick action for crime against women and children by filing charge sheets within 30 days in two major cases of rape and sexual assault against children. In August, the Delhi Police filed a 400-page charge sheet in a court here against a crematorium priest and three others for alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in the Delhi Cantonment area. Next month, it filed a 187-page charge sheet before a court in the case of alleged sexual assault of a six-year-old girl by a man in east Delhi that took place in August. Based on an inquiry report submitted before the Supreme Court by Asthana, 28 Tihar jail officials were suspended and services of two contractual employees were terminated for their alleged role in helping jailed Unitech ex-promoters Sanjay and Ajay Chandra in violating prison rules. The extortion racket run by Sukesh Chandrashekar from inside Delhi jail was also busted and in total, 19 people were arrested in the case. In 2021, Delhi Police signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Law University to train officers and investigators and another MoU was signed with the Rashtriya Raksha University for mutual cooperation and sharing of resources and expertise in the area of academics, research and training. In another feather to its cap, the force was awarded first rank among major state police forces in the implementation of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS). It achieved 100 per cent data entry for registration f FIRs, arrest, property seizure, final reports and charge sheets. Among its initiatives, e-learning programme ''Unnati'' was also launched by the force to help educate youths and impart skill training to school dropouts from the weaker sections of society while with a rise in cybercrime in the national capital, the Delhi Police created a dedicated cyber police station in each of its 15 districts to deal with such cases effectively in the city. The high profile arrests in 2021 included that of Olympic medalist wrestler Sushil Kumar along with others for their alleged involvement in the Chhatrasal Stadium murder case while the arrest of Bengaluru-based activist Disha Ravi in connection with the ''toolkit Google doc'' backing the farmers' agitation shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg case was also in the spotlight.

It also solved the high profile murder case of National Conference leader Trilochan Singh Wazir in west Delhi's Moti Nagar and that of wife of late Union Minister P Rangarajan Kumaramangalam during an attempted robbery at her Vasant Vihar house.