Delhi gangrape: Home Ministry orders probe into Sheila Dikshit's allegations on police interference

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's request to probe allegations that the Delhi police tried to interfere when a magistrate was recording the statement of the 23-year-old gangrape victim has snowballed into another confrontation between the city government and its police.

The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday ordered a probe into the allegations made by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit that senior Delhi Police officials were allegedly interfering in the recording of the statement by the 23-year-old Delhi gangrape victim.

Even as Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar dismissed the allegations as baseless, a judicial magistrate Tuesday recorded a fresh statement of the victim after Dikshit's letter. Home ministry officials said they were taking the complaint very seriously.

Dikshit's letter comes just days after her son and Congress MP Sandeep demanded that Kumar resign for what he called mishandling of the protests at India Gate.

Following a complaint from sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Usha Chaturvedi about the alleged interference by the police, Dikshit on Monday had written to Shinde seeking an independent inquiry into the 'interference' by police officers when Chaturvedi sought to record the victim's statement at Safdarjung hospital on December 21.

In her complaint, Chaturvedi had said that police officers had asked her to record the victim's statement as per a questionnaire prepared by them and that the report by the police based on the victim's friend's statement did not match the victim's testimony.

Neeraj Kumar, however, had dismissed the allegations. He had said it was the same police officers who had asked the government for an SDM to get the victim's statement recorded. The SDM was briefed at the Vasant Vihar police station.

"We approached the deputy commissioner from the Delhi government for an SDM to record the victim's statement. There was no lady SDM in the New Delhi district so the SDM from Vivek Vihar was sent to record the statement," Kumar had said.

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