Cops never worked under ‘political’ pressure: Bassi

Addressing media persons in his farewell function, Bassi said Delhi police never worked under any “political pressure”terming police’s functional autonomy as “sacrosanct.” 

“Delhi Police’s functional autonomy is sacrosanct. Some also think Delhi police works under political pressure. Please remove that misunderstanding,” he said. 

However, Bassi expressed confidence that his successor Alok Verma would take “technology” in the Delhi Police to greater heights. 

He also thanked his entire team of Delhi Police for being a firm support and wished them success in their future endeavours. 

Over the past few weeks, Delhi Police has been accused of excessive police action against students at Jawaharlal Nehru University over an event held on its campus to commemorate the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru on February 9. Three students have been arrested so far on the sedition charges. 

Led by Bassi, Delhi police also faced the criticism for mishandling the two successive incidents of violence at Patiala House court before hearing on the JNU case. 

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking action against Police Chief BS Bassi for allegedly “influencing” the probe in the JNU sedition case, saying the plea was for “publicity interest” and courts cannot be burdened with such applications. 

“Why did you file this petition? We are surprised that this is not for public interest but for publicity interest,” a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath said as soon as the hearing commenced. The bench also asked the petitioner on what basis he was leveling such allegations. 

The counsel appearing for petitioner Satish Pandey referred to newspaper reports and said that the plea was based on the statement given by Bassi which was widely published in the media. 

To this, the bench said, “We will not go by the newspaper reports. The law is well settled. If you have any other material except these newspaper reports, you can tell us.” 

The petition had alleged that Bassi’s statement that the police would not oppose JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar’s bail plea, may influence fair and transparent investigation in the matter as well as court proceedings.