Bassi defends police action at Kerala House, calls it ‘preventive measure’
New Delhi: Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi on Tuesday rejected Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's contention that police "raided" Kerala House following a complaint that its canteen was serving beef and described police action as a "preventive measure".
Bassi said that the Kerala House staff have apprised him of the absence of beef items on their menu list and that police personnel were deployed as part of preventive measures to prevent any sort of protest.
"It was not a raid. It in fact was a preventive measure as per our standing operating procedures. We had alerted their private security staff as soon as we got a call to prevent any protest. We also deployed possible security measures there and alerted the staff working there," Bassi told reporters.
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On being asked about reports that the state guest house removed "beef curry" from their menu before police could reach, he said, "I don't have any knowledge about it...we have been informed by the staff that there was no beef item on their menu list."
"We received a call by a person who had come into notice for taking law in his own hands. So, we alerted the staff working in Kerala house beforehand," the Delhi top cop said.
Bassi cited the Delhi Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act, 1994, under which slaughter of cows, calves of cows, bulls and bullocks is illegal to justify police enquiry at Kerala House.
"We have kept a precautionary watch there to ensure there will be no violation of law and order," he added.
A PCR call complaining about beef curry being served at Kerala House here threw police into a tizzy on Monday and a team had to be sent there to avert any "untoward incident".
The call was received by the police control room around 4.15 PM, and the caller, claiming to be from a fringe right-wing group, told the police that beef was being served at Kerala House.
The policemen took no chance and the input was immediately passed on to Parliament Street police station, from where a team was sent to Kerala House to deal with any potential violence.
