Delhi Police today again refused to share details about the farmer's suicide at an AAP rally with the District Magistrate even as the deadline set by the latter passed.
Police have cited legal nitty gritties to defy the DM's request, who has been asked by the Delhi government to carry out a magisterial inquiry into the alleged suicide of Rajasthan farmer Gajendra Singh on Wednesday.
The DM had set 11 am as deadline for the police to submit details regarding the case.
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Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said police has powers to investigate the issue under the CrPC Act as well as the Delhi Police Act.
"If anyone has any doubt we will take legal opinion," he said.
He refused to comment on the standoff, saying that the communication between the government and the police was "privileged" which cannot be disclosed to the media especially when it was a "political and administrative matter".
However, police sources claimed that there are nearly 7,000 cases of unnatural death every year in the national capital including suicide cases in which "inquest" is done by police and the government never shows interest in all these cases.
"Then why they want a magisterial inquiry here when police have registered an FIR and carrying out a thorough investigation," sources said.
"Inquest is done by the magistrate as per law in cases of dowry death. But in any case, if police files an FIR then inquest becomes part of police investigation, which has happened in this case. Sunanda Pushkar case is another such example," said a senior police official.
Police have argued that under CrPc and Delhi Police Act, the Police Commissioner has the same powers as the DM and indicated that they are ready to reply in the court if a complaint is filed against them for refusing to share information regarding the case.
Earlier, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought to play down the government's face-off with the Delhi Police, saying he was even ready to file his statement to the police if needed.
"District Magistrate has the jurisdiction to investigate under the CrPC and the police does criminal investigation based on FIR...If police calls me I will go to file my statement," he said.
