Kejriwal’s “thulla” comment aimed at inefficient cops: Court

The controversy started to brew up when the CM of Delhi- Mr.Arvind Kejriwal made a statement : “ If a Delhi police 'thulla' seeks money from a street vendor, that is not acceptable. We will surely file a case against that.” The comment drew flak from the media as well as the top cops in Delhi and around the country. In a sharp and sarcastic reply, Madhur Verma DCP, North Delhi, tweeted on Sunday, “ One of our so called & lsquo Thu**a' who rescued 4 yr old Khushbu from Kamla Nagar & reunited with her mother!!” The post was with respect to an incident where a cop rescued a child and reunited the family. A Delhi court, in a ruling, stated that the term “ thulla” used by the CM was with respect to the police cops who were “ inefficient” or with “ low productivity rate” and take money from the vendors on the streets. “ It has not been said by the respondent (Kejriwal) that all Delhi Police personnel are & lsquo thulla'. On the other hand, the use of word & lsquo koi' (someone) before & lsquo thulla' clearly shows that the said imputation is neither directed towards complainant individually nor towards whole of Delhi Police as a class but towards an indeterminate and unidentifiable class of police officers of Delhi Police who are having lower productivity rate than other reasonable Delhi police officers,” said Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg. “ To be more precise, the said word appears to have been made with reference to those police officers who lack in efficiency and indulge in taking money from rehdi patri walas& hellip It is neither directed to the complainant individually nor to entire Delhi Police as a class but to an indeterminate and unidentifiable class of inefficient and corrupt police officials& hellip Thus, there are no sufficient grounds to proceed further against the respondent (Kejriwal) and to summon him under section 500 of the IPC,” the court added. A constable has lodged a criminal defamation complaint against Kejriwal for allegedly using the derogatory word'. Harvinder Singh, who is posted at the Govindpuri police station in southeast Delhi, said in his complaint that he was hurt by the word “ thulla” used by the chief minister in an interview to a news channel.

OUR TAKE

Let us all be honest. There have been thousands and millions of times when people like you and me have called the cops the so called “ derogatory” term- “ thulla” . The term-whether it is derogatory or not- is wrong. Agreed. But the malpractices and the actions of the cops in various situations have made the public hurl much serious derogatory terms than this one. It is their own actions that have brought them the bad name. While we truly acknowledge the good work done by many police officers around the country, there is no denying that the police fraternity is not devoid of cops who engage in actions an honest man should not engage in.