Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Criticising Delhi Police for shielding their erring officials, the Delhi High Court Wednesday decided to monitor a probe against 33 policemen identified for allegedly taking bribe and allowing liquor smugglers to do business.

According to a report submitted by police today, 33 policemen out of 54 individuals involved in the case had been identified so far.

The report said that no action had been taken so far against the identified policemen.

The division bench of Acting Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice R.S. Endlaw said: “There is total lack of action on the part of Delhi Police and the courts are forced to monitor such type of cases.”

“They are going to shield their own people as the allegation was against their own officials. There seems to be no serious effort to complete the probe,” the court said, seeking the original police file pertaining to the investigation.

Petitioner Chetan Sharma sought the court’s intervention to monitor the investigations and alleged that the police commissioner, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the home ministry were not showing interest in the case even after the court’s order.

Sharma said that in July 2010 the court had viewed some CDs that he had presented after filming policemen and officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) taking bribe from liquor smugglers in various parts of the city and had directed the CVC and police to take action against the erring officials.

Advocate Manish Khanna appearing for petitioner Sharma told the court that police have failed to register a case against the officials in compliance with the court’s earlier order.

Sharma had named 54 policemen, including 10 traffic policemen and seven MCD officials for their alleged involvement in taking bribes and allowing the liquor smugglers to carry on their business in the city.