New Delhi, July 21: Union home minister Shivraj Patil today summoned Delhi police commissioner K.K. Paul and demanded an explanation on the deteriorating law and order in the capital, a day after a woman was gangraped in a moving car.

The home secretary was also present at the half-hour meeting.

Coming out of Patil’s office, a glum-faced Paul said the minister discussed the two rape cases ? the other was that of a student on May 8 ? besides security for Independence Day and the Delhi Metro.

Paul said the police were focusing on the rape cases and would solve them soon. “We have shortlisted some people and would soon be releasing the sketch of one of the culprits involved in the rape,” he said. But he acknowledged that the police had no clue about the car’s registration number.

Shortly after the meeting, the station house officer of Mayapuri police station, Samay Singh Meena, was transferred back to Delhi Armed Police.

Early yesterday morning, a 23-year-old resident of a Mayapuri jhuggi was abducted by three men in a Maruti who raped her as they drove around the city. The police are under fire for failing to register a complaint and sound an alert for the car even though they were informed of the abduction immediately.

A preliminary inquiry has revealed that there was a long time lag between the incident and registration of the complaint as the police stations at Mayapuri and Hari Nagar could not decide where it should be filed. As a result, the search for the car was delayed by more than three hours.

In the May 8 gangrape of a college student, again in a moving car, police had been accused of reacting late although the victim’s friend had informed them within minutes of the incident.

The sketch of the accused that Paul had promised was released later in the day. The man is said to be in his twenties and the sketch was drawn on the basis of description given by the victim and witnesses. Portraits of the two other accused are still being finalised, the police said. Reports yesterday said there were four rapists, but the police today clarified there were three.

The National Commission for Women attacked Delhi police for not taking prompt action to prevent the rape and demanded an action plan to make the capital safe for women within three months.

Addressing a news conference, chairperson Girija Vyas said the commission would approach Lieutenant Governor B.L. Joshi and chief minister Sheila Dikshit for formulating an action plan. “A police van was sent in response to the complaint, which kept searching in vain for the car in which the woman was abducted. More vans were sent, but later. Had adequate number of vans been sent at the first instance, the crime could have been prevented,” she said.

Vyas said the police had not yet filed the chargesheet in the May 8 gangrape.

She also raised the issue of sanitation facilities for women in the slum clusters. “The victim had gone to answer nature’s call on the roadside. The area does have a Sulabh toilet, but it is in a pathetic situation, forcing the women to go elsewhere,” she said.