New police chief takes charge from Bassi

Bassi takes a dig at AAP government, says Delhi police autonomy is ‘sacrosanct’

Senior IPS officer Alok Kumar Verma took over as the new city police commissioner, replacing Bhim Sain Bassi, who retired from service on Monday.

Mr Verma took over as the police chief after Mr Bassi was given a farewell at the police headquarters on Monday morning. “I am extremely happy to have served in the police force for 38 years, 7 months and 18 days. I believe I got ample opportunities to serve public and I have made the most of it,” Mr Bassi said after handing over the reins of the police force to Mr Verma.

Mr Bassi also took an apparent dig at the AAP government, saying the Delhi police autonomy is “sacrosanct.” “The Delhi police’s functional autonomy is sacrosanct. Those who have raised questions regarding the Delhi police autonomy, should be taken back in time and made to look into history,” Mr Bassi said at his farewell parade in New Police Lines here.

“We don’t have any strife with anyone. We reach out to everyone and if someone thinks that the Delhi police only wants to get into confrontations, they should stop thinking that way. Some also think that the Delhi police works under political pressure. Please do not have such misunderstanding. In every case, we rely on evidence, whether it is Sunanda Pushkar matter or the cases of Patiala House violence or the JNU row,” he said.

In an unprecedented move, the new police chief addressed police personnel on a wireless set. “We should always make sure that our religion, caste and community should not act as a hurdle in performing of our duties,” Mr Verma said, adding that they needed to give special attention to security of senior citizens, women and children.

Mr Verma also urged the police personnel to not only pay attention to heinous ca-ses, but also to other small ones as they may be a big incident for common people. He also warned his for-ce to keep away from corru-ption, rudeness and barba-rism and exhorted them to improve the police image.

Calling constables the “spine” of the police force, Mr Verma said the supervisors should ensure better communication with their subordinates to make sure that all problems they confront on the field are dealt with at the earliest. He also said that he would try his best to improve accommodation, barracks and mess facilities of police personnel.