It’s at rare occasions that the cops answer public queries. At an event, Face to Face with Delhi Police, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), members of the association and other guests grilled the Delhi Police Commissioner B.K. Gupta about various issues of the city.
When a question was raised about the image of Delhi being a crime capital, the commissioner said that Delhi is a safe city and anyone who thinks differently is wrong. In fact, he said with a vigorous crackdown, the number of crimes have really decreased in the past few months. “We try our best to solve all the cases but even if one case (read Sobhit Modi) takes time, there’s so much hue and cry,” said the commissioner, who thinks that a cops’ job is satisfying but thankless. “There’s a lot of sacrifice behind the scene. But no one thinks about that,” he added.
Talking about a report that said that there were five rapes in the capital in two days, Gupta became very defensive and said that the rapes are mostly committed by known people, which the police can’t track. “One has to be very careful and alert on a personal level. Family members or friends commit 97 per cent rapes while rapes by strangers are only three per cent,” said Gupta and added that the victims will have to come forward and lodge a complain in order to lessen the numbers. “Since most of the victims choose to keep quiet, the offenders don’t get scared,” he said.
Further, he added that lodging a complaint would be a big help in bringing down the crime rate. “Radhika Tanwar, who was shot dead by a stalker in March this year, would have been saved if she complained at the right time. She was being stalked for a long time but she didn’t speak up,” he said.