Friday, March 29, 2024

Delhi Police sends a stinker to Times of India; calls out ‘short-on-facts’ piece





The Delhi police has objected to a recent Times of India editorial, and asked if the newspaper is trying to influence investigations and expect Delhi Police to take guidance from media on Delhi Riots this February which had claimed 59 lives.

Times of India wrote an editorial on August 6, questioning the Delhi Police, drawing a comparison with the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi, and blaming the politician-police nexus which has opened old wounds.

On the questioning of Delhi University professor Apporvanand, for his role in the anti-CAA protests, the Times of India in its piece has accused Delhi Police for seeing no difference between dissent and rioting. It is “absurd and self-defeating”, wrote Times of India.

Times of India wrote: “Dissent makes democracy meaningful…Delhi Police seem to be making little distinction between criminal conspiracy and peaceful protests in that multitude of anti-CAA voices. The stringent anti-terror Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act with its restricts on bail, a record of lengthy incarcerations, and abysmal conviction rate at the end of much harassment, is a warning few with a mind to dissent can ignore…Police must stop chasing shadows.”

Delhi Police were quick to join the issue with Times of India within hours of its report.

In a tweet, Delhi Police stated that the editorial was loaded with innuendos and insinuations of a kind. It said that Delhi Police has neither issued a press note for summoning Apporvanand nor have put information on the same in the public domain. Why did TOI jump gun, questions Delhi Police. It also added they couldn’t be seeking guidance from the writer of the piece on how to go about doing investigations.

“Is he trying to pressurize the police into abstaining from its lawful duties,” queried Delhi Police. It found the Times of India report as nothing but “thinly-veiled, but doomed attempt at influencing the investigation itself.”

The Delhi Police also claimed that the writer has an inability to understand criminal jurisprudence. With a skewed understanding, Delhi Police tweeted, the author has created a fake narrative that the actual rioters would be spared.

Delhi Police chose the moment to inform that 1500 accused have already been arrest in connection with Delhi riots. And that it has registered more than 750 cases in connection with the anti-CAA stir.

“Democracy is neither protected by uttering homilies nor by penning hastily-put-together articles short on facts and expertise but replete with rhetoric and platitudes,” wrote Delhi Police.

Delhi Police concluded that such reports would only strengthen their resolve to spare no effort to peel away the cunningly spun web of lies and deception and expose the despicable truth which lies at the heart of the conspiracy.

The Delhi Police also asked the editors of Times of India to publish the rejoinder in the OpEd page of the Delhi edition of Times of India.


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