Will not allow PM Modi to sleep peacefully: Kejriwal

New Delhi: The political firestorm in the wake of rape of two minors in the national capital intensified today with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stepping up attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he will not let him sleep "peacefully" if "jungle raj prevails".

After a meeting with Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Kejriwal lambasted the Centre and Delhi Police, asserting that he will not remain silent on the issue of women's security even as investigators claimed to have cracked the case of rape of a two-and-half year old child with arrest of two juveniles.

"We will not allow the Prime Minister to sleep peacefully if women in Delhi do not get proper safety and the present trend of rapes continues. That is guaranteed," Kejriwal said.

Claiming that "jungle raj" was prevailing in the capital, Kejriwal urged Modi not to remain "stubborn" and hand over law and order control to city government for at least one year, a demand he had made yesterday as well.

"The Prime Minister must understand that I am not (previous Chief Minister) Sheila Dikshit. I will not remain silent," he said. Dikshit had yesterday accused Kejriwal of indulging in blame game.

Without giving details, the Chief Minister said his government was exploring all options to ensure safety of women and improve overall law and order situation.

Sources said Delhi Government was contemplating approaching the Supreme Court "to fix accountability" of the Delhi Police.

Responding to Kejriwal's jungle raj comment, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said "these type of remarks should not be given much importance as they are made keeping political positioning in mind. There is no jungle raj in Delhi."

In the meeting with Jung, Kejriwal submitted figures of crime against women in the last four years and cases of missing children and requested him to take urgent measures to improve the law and order situation.

Kejriwal has called a cabinet meeting tomorrow to discuss the law and order situation. A two-and-half-year-old girl and another five-year-old were brutally raped in the capital on Friday, barely a week after a sexual assault of a minor, triggering widespread outrage and a political slugfest.

"We met the L-G along with last four years' record on crime cases. Around 31,000 cases of crime against women were recorded. Out of these, chargesheets were filed in only 13,000 cases. In 18,000 cases, there was no charge



sheet. Only 146 people were punished overall. So you can see how safe our women are," the Chief Minister said.

BJP attacked Kejriwal over his jungle raj comments, saying his outburst on the city's security scenario was a mere "political skulduggery".

In the 45-minute-long meeting which was attended by several top officials, Kejriwal questioned the "control" over police, emphasising that they must be made accountable.

Jung on the other hand assured the Chief Minister that all possible measures will be taken to improve security of women in the city.

"There is absolutely no democratic control over Delhi Police which is very dangerous for a democratic country," Kejriwal said, adding the law and order situation will see significant improvement if police was handed over to Delhi Government.

Kejriwal said that people of Delhi are "very angry" over the rapes and that there was a sense of insecurity among them. "Rapists know that they commit crime and get away with it," he said.

Meanwhile, investigators said two juveniles have been apprehended in connection with the rape of the toddler at west Delhi's Nihal Vihar area. Both the accused, aged around 17 years, live in the same neighbourhood and were known to the girl's family, police said.

On Friday night, they took advantage of powercut in the area and allegedly abducted the girl, after which at least one of them raped her, a police official said.

"More than 15 teams were formed in this case and around 250 locals were questioned throughout the night, after which the police zeroed in on a few and later the accused juveniles were apprehended," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Dependra Pathak.

In the second incident, a five-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by a co-tenant and two of his associates at a slum cluster in east Delhi's Anand Vihar area last evening.

The girl's parents are labourers and she was alone at home when the accused lured her to their accommodation just above the victim's house.

As the incident came to light, the neighbours thrashed the three and handed them over to police. The accused have been identified as Prakash, Rewati and Sitaram.

Both the girls suffered severe injuries and are recovering in separate hospitals. The two rape incidents came a week after brutal rape of a four year-old girl in north west Delhi's Keshavpuram area.