Delhi riots: Amid criticism over police inaction, S.N. Shrivastava appointed new top cop

As the Delhi Police is facing accusations of not doing enough to contain the communal unrest in the capital that claimed several lives and injured hundreds, Senior IPS officer S.N. Shrivastava has been given the additional charge of the capital’s police commissioner with effect from Sunday. He will replace Amulya Patnaik, who retires on Saturday.

Earlier this week, Shrivastava was repatriated from the Central Reserve Police Force and appointed as the special commissioner (law and order) of the Delhi Police.

Shrivastava, a 1985-batch IPS officer, will hold the additional charge of the Delhi Police commissioner with effect from Sunday and until further orders, the order issued by the Union Home Ministry said.

In the CRPF, Shrivastava was serving as the special director general (training). He had served the Delhi Police in various capacities, including as the head of the elite anti-terror wing, Special Cell.

Ever since he rejoined the Delhi Police, Shrivastava was busy in controlling the communal violence in Northeast Delhi, in which at least 39 people have been killed. Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at local residents and police personnel after violence between anti-and pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act groups spiralled out of control.

The Delhi Police has also been criticised for failing to file FIRs over alleged hate speeches made by leaders like the BJP's Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma.

On Thursday evening, Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting to review the law and order situation in Delhi. The meeting was attended by senior police and government officials, including the Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Patnaik and Srivastava.

According to officials, no major incident had been reported across any of the affected areas in the last 36 hours. They said that orders banning large gatherings, issued under Section 144, would be relaxed for 10 hours on Friday, in view of improving ground situation.

According to a Delhi health department official, the death toll in climbed to 39 on Friday. There were some areas of normalcy in the riot-hit localities of Northeast Delhi with shops opening, PTI reported.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday. Hundreds of Delhi police personnel are on the ground to maintain peace.

More than 200 people have been injured in the communal clashes that broke out on Monday. The areas affected include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.

Meanwhile, local mosques in Northeast Delhi appealed on Friday for maintaining peace and harmony in the riot-hit area. The mosques appealed to people to be united and not fall prey to rumours, urging people to report about suspicious people to the authorities and cooperate with the police.

"In case of any emergency, please call on 112," the announcement said.