Battered...
On Wednesday, Doval held a second meeting with the police brass before he and several of the officers fanned out to the stricken neighbourhoods with battalions of the constabulary and paramilitary reinforcements.
Police also accessed localities that had been too volatile to reach since late Sunday, marching through what resembled a war zone as buildings stood covered in soot from petrol bombs, streets were dotted with the twisted, molten remains of burnt vehicles, and the ground lay littered with bricks and stones used by mobs as projectiles against each other.
The trail of destruction included homes, businesses, mosques, schools, and commercial buildings.
“I saw my house being set ablaze by a mob. I still have not been able to go inside to assess the damage,” said Suresh Kaushik, standing in knee-deep water outside his house after firefighters put the flames out.
RESIDENTS FLEE
With security reaching these parts for the first time, dozens of families that had locked themselves in emerged with luggage to head to safer parts of the city.
“I was on my terrace; I could see men on the other side burning a vehicle and pelting stones. We asked police forces to escort us to our relative’s house safely and even when they helped us leave our house, the men were walking threateningly towards us and asking the personnel to just move aside for a bit,” said Abdul Majid, a resident of Shiv Vihar.
Some of the violence, such as the one witnessed by Majid, continued on Wednesday – though the violence had abated significantly. “We are in the process of identifying the miscreants through investigations of CCTV footages and other strong evidences we have,” said MS Randhawa, the police’s public relations officer. Till Wednesday, he added, 106 people were arrested and 18 first information report (FIR) registered.
Randhawa appealed to the public to share information or problems they face on the police telephone number-112. He gave out two additional numbers for people from the north-east district to reach out to for assistance – 22829334, 22829335.
“I appeal to the public not to believe in rumours. The situation has been brought under control by the Delhi Police. We are continuously patrolling the area and I assure you that we will take strong action against any anti-social elements or miscreants creating trouble in the area,” he added.
MIDNIGHT ORDER
The Delhi Police, however, has been singled out by opposition parties as well as the courts for not acting on time. The most dramatic intervention by the courts camearound12:30amonwednesday, when a high court bench ordered police to immediately “deploy all resources” to rescue nearly 18 severely injured people at the Al Hind hospital in Mustafabad. The injured were stuck since Tuesday evening, with mobs turning away several ambulances that attempted to reach the facility in order to take them to a bigger hospital.
“We kept getting calls from the hospital administration and we were all trying our level best to reach the injured people on time. There have been instances when ambulances get stuck in traffic jams but this was an extraordinary situation. I have never felt this helpless,” said Shiv Ram, a paramedic in one of the ambulances that were turned around.
The patients were eventually evacuated around 1:30am.
Separately, a Supreme Court bench on Wednesday rebuked the Delhi Police for failing to act “professionally” and to check “unfortunate incidents”. Law enforcing agencies allowed the “instigators of violence” to get away, when they should have acted “independently” as per the law without waiting for somebody’s nod, the judges said while hearing an application seeking its intervention in the riots. The top court, however, did not look into the application, saying the matter was being heard by the HC.