Delhi Police commissioner SN Shrivastava will have to word his next reply to celebrated veteran policeman Julio Ribeiro carefully. The retired senior policeman had written to the serving one to investigate the North-East Delhi Riots fairly, and had slammed him for failing to ensure a fair probe into the communal violence that broke out in February 2020.
Ribeiro, who had served as Mumbai police commissioner, and director general of Punjab and Gujarat and the Central Reserve Police Force, and awarded a Padma Bhushan, is now an active civil rights activist, after his retirement from the force. However, he remembers his policing days well and can spot a flawed investigation instantly.
In his letter, Ribeiro took the Delhi Police commissioner to task for taking “action against peaceful protestors but deliberately failed to register cognizable offences against those who made hate speeches which triggered the riots”.
He had reminded the commissioner about the “The not-so-subtle attempt by the Delhi Police to entangle true patriots, like Harsh Mander and Prof. Apoorvanand, in criminal cases is another matter for concern,” before reminding the police chief of his duties. The Delhi Police commissioner wrote back stating that “No discrimination in riots probe”, reported The Hindustan Times. The commissioner denied all charges and discrepancies Ribeiro had alerted him to.
However, Julio Ribeiro, is an expert on policing, and as Delhi Police Commissioner himself states, was at the “zenith of his career” when the latter was just starting his. Shrivastava, also phoned Ribeiro.
Ribeiro, on Wednesday, wrote back to Shrivastava, saying the doubts he raised have not been cleared at all. The letter which reads like the Gospel of policing has ‘tips’ for Delhi police such as: “I would quickly file the charge-sheets in all the 753 cases, including specially the Conspiracy case registered by your Special Cell and get the evidence authenticated in a Court of law.” More pertinently “I would not prolong the U.A.P.A case by arresting persons just a day or two before the time limit expires for filing the charge-sheet.”
He showed Delhi Police the mirror, with the comment that it is “impossible, to justify the licence given to the three B.J.P stalwarts I named – licence to rant, rave and threaten those who are peacefully protesting perceived wrongs. If the speakers were Muslims or Leftists the police would have surely taken them in for sedition!”
This is the full text of the letter, which should indeed be read by all members of the police force in the country:
Dear Shri. Shrivastava,
Your gesture of personally phoning to justify and explain your stand and two days later personally putting down your say in an e-mail is praiseworthy. In your place I would have done likewise.
There are doubts in my original open letter which you have not addressed. I realise that it is difficult, indeed impossible, to justify the licence given to the three B.J.P stalwarts I named – licence to rant, rave and threaten those who are peacefully protesting perceived wrongs. If the speakers were Muslims or Leftists the police would have surely taken them in for sedition!
After talking to you on the phone and perusing your letter I have decided to put myself in your shoes! How would I dispel the doubts that your retired brother officers still have about Delhi Police investigations in the N.E. Delhi riots? I would quickly file the charge-sheets in all the 753 cases, including specially the Conspiracy case registered by your Special Cell and get the evidence authenticated in a Court of law.
More pertinently I would not prolong the U.A.P.A case by arresting persons just a day or two before the time limit expires for filing the charge-sheet.
I note in your e-mail to me that you have doubted the patriotism of the three who I named as ‘true patriots’. The three include Harsh Mander, Prof. Apoorvanand and me. I have not described one else as such and hence my surmise.
Harsh and Apoorvanand are Gandhians. I should have remembered that Gandhians have lost favour with this regime!
With regards,
Julio Ribeiro
I.P.S. (Retd.) 53 MAH
Related:
Julio Ribeiro hauls Delhi Police chief over the coals
This ‘investigation’ is a criminal conspiracy by Delhi Police: Activists
More activists named in riots case: Delhi Police getting desperate?