Expressing concern over the crime rate in the national capital, senior AAP leader and Cabinet Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday claimed LG V K Saxena was inefficient in handling the law and order.

Bharadwaj drew attention to concerning data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), claiming that the data reveals Delhi’s unfortunate distinction as the highest crime-rate city in the nation, coupled with a dismal rate of charge sheets, he added.

Expressing dismay at the surge in daylight criminal activities, including heinous murders and shootings, the Delhi Minister demanded accountability from the LG, pointing towards alleged corruption within the city’s police and the undermining of women’s safety initiatives by removing bus marshals and staff from the Delhi Commission for Women.

Bharadwaj urged the LG to focus on improving the law and order situation of the national capital and also let the elected Delhi government do its work.

Speaking on the issue of increasing crime rates in the national capital, theAAP leader said, “For the last few days, it has been seen that heinous crimes are surging in Delhi and the law and order situation of Delhi is going from bad to worse. The safety & security of Delhi has almost collapsed in the last few months.”

Further quoting data of NCRB, he further said, “If we look at the NCRB data, then at present the crime rate in Delhi is the highest in the whole country. According to the NCRB data, today in Delhi, about 1832 crimes are happening per 1 lakh population, whereas at the national level, this average is about 258 crimes per 1 lakh population.”

The average number of criminal cases in Delhi is 7 times higher than in the country, Bharadwaj claimed.

Bringing up examples of some horrific incidents that happened in Delhi yesterday, the Delhi minister said that on Monday a video came out in which it was seen that a witness of a murder case in the Jafrabad area was stabbed by five people in broad daylight in front of the public.

He further referred to a news report regarding an incident of RK Puram in Delhi, where an auto-rickshaw driver allegedly killed a Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) constable by slitting his throat with a sharp knife due to arguments over an altercation in fare.

Bharadwaj further mentioned a matter pertaining to the Tilak Nagar area, where a car showroom owner was asked to pay a ransom of Rs 5 crores and five shots were fired in the air outside the said showroom to scare the owner.

Bharadwaj further claimed that when the BJP government came to power in the Centre back in the year 2014, there were about 5,500 vacancies in Delhi Police, and in the present day these vacancies have increased to about 13,000.

Pointing towards the crimes against women, Bharadwaj said that about 30 percent of such crimes seen in the big cities of the country are happening only in Delhi, and for the last 3 years, the crime incidents in Delhi are at a higher level as compared to the other states, he added.

He further hit out at the LG alleging that despite many criminal incidents against women, the LG did two such things which the minister claimed have made things worse, and they include removal of 8,000 bus marshals that were deployed for women safety, and the second thing was to paralyse the helpline number 181 issued by the Delhi Commission for Women, Bharadwaj added.