‘Gandhians Lost Favour With This Regime’: Ribeiro on Delhi Riots

Veteran cop Julio Ribeiro writes to Delhi Police Commissioner, questions ‘licence given to three BJP stalwarts’.

Veteran police officer Julio Ribeiro has once again written to Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava seeking answers on whether the probe into the February riots in Delhi was being conducted without any discrimination. Responding to the Delhi Police Commissioner’s letter, Ribeiro pointed out that the CP did not explain the licence given to three BJP stalwarts.

Ribeiro was referring to BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma against whom the Delhi police has claimed that no cognisable offence had been found.

“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!”

Excerpt from Julio Ribeiro’s letter 

The Delhi Police Commissioner in his earlier response had mentioned that out of 751 FIRs registered in the riots, more than 410 FIRs were registered on the complaints of minority community. He had further added that “the other community” had filed over 190 FIRs, and the remaining were registered on the basis of daily diary entries.

Julio Ribeiro in his response to the Delhi CP wrote that if he were in the Commissioner’s shoes, he would dispel the doubts about Delhi Police investigations in the Northeast Delhi riots by quickly filing 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”, he added.

‘Gandhians Have Lost Favour With This Regime’

Responding to his earlier statement that “true patriots” like Harsh Mander, Prof Apoorvanand are being entangled in criminal cases in a “not-so-subtle” manner, the veteran cop wrote, “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!”

Excerpt from Julio Ribeiro’s letter 

Ribeiro’s response comes after the Delhi Police Commissioner had earlier written, “In conclusion, I would take this opportunity to assure you that we in the Delhi Police are serving the oath and the Constitution with conviction, integrity and sensitivity, without fear of any self proclaimed ‘true patriots’ or favour towards any class, creed or community.”