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New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday demanded control over Delhi Police and said he won't let Prime Minister Narendra Modi "sleep peacefully" over rising crime in the capital.
"I am no Sheila Dikshit. I won't let even PM (Modi) sleep peacefully," Kejriwal told reporters after meeting Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung, referring to the former Delhi chief minister.
"Why didn't he (Modi) visit the families of rape victims when he can go abroad?" the Aam Aadmi Party leader asked.
The remarks came after a toddler and a five-year-old child were raped in two separate incidents here. Kejriwal announced a special meeting on Monday of the Delhi cabinet over women's safety.
Dikshit, who ruled Delhi for 15 years before being defeated by Kejriwal, faced public wrath over the horrific gang-rape and death of a 23-year-old woman here in 2012.
She had then pleaded helplessness citing that Delhi Police was not under her control -- an issue which continues to be a sore point between Delhi's AAP government and the central government.
Kejriwal said Delhi Police, which reports to the union home ministry and the Lt. Governor, had become ineffective because of which there was no fear among criminals.
"Give Delhi Police to us for a year and see how we fix it. And if you can't hand over the charge of entire Delhi Police, let us handle it in east Delhi," he said.
"If law and order does not improve (in that period), take it back from us," he added.
Referring to the gang rape of the two-and-a-half-year toddler in west Delhi, the chief minister said the state of women safety could be imagined if a child could be kidnapped from a crowded place.
The toddler was kidnapped from near her home and raped by two teenagers during a sudden power outage in the area on Friday night. She was found at a nearby park early Saturday.
In the second case, the five-year-old was raped by three men in east Delhi's Anand Vihar.
Kejriwal informed Jung -- the two have been having a war for months over jurisdictional issues -- that of the 31,000 FIRs registered since 2012, police had filed chargesheets in only 13,000 cases.
Kejriwal lamented that every time there was a crime against women, the usual police refrain was that they had filed an FIR.
Meanwhile, Congress activists protested outside Kejriwal's residence in Civil Lines area to denounce his remarks on Sheila Dikshit.
