This case was a watershed: Top cop

A flurry of raging citizens' protests in reaction to the most brutal sexual assault on a woman in the city cornered his embattled force with angry suggestions that he quit on 'moral grounds' but Delhi's Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said his force did its best.

A flurry of raging citizens' protests in reaction to the most brutal sexual assault on a woman in the city cornered his embattled force with angry suggestions that he quit on 'moral grounds' but Delhi's Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said his force did its best. At the same time, he conceded there was much ground to cover.

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"I would not have quit under any circumstances. Not only because I hold my office at the pleasure of the government, but when it comes to the same ethical grounds, I lead the force and could not have abandoned it during troubled times in any case," he said, when asked whether he had considered quitting his post in the face of public ire at his alleged mishandling of the case.

Observing a two-minute silence in honour of the "brave girl", the police commissioner said the incident had jolted the very foundations of the nation and everyone, including society at large, needed to learn much from it.

"The case is not only a watershed incident of this force but for the history of criminal justice system of India, if not the whole of India. It has the power, the strength and the propulsion to bring about major changes in the way offences against women are dealt with by police, the prosecution, the courts and even medical teams," he said.

When asked about the death of Constable Subhash Chand Tomar, Kumar said a policeman was a policeman and had to do his job no matter what the odds.

"He did not have a history of heart ailment," Kumar told Hindustan Times.

The commissioner also said he would try and push to get the juvenile justice laws amended to include perpetrators such as the 17-year-old who played a major part in the gangrape of December 16.