A Supreme Court-appointed committee to probe the security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Punjab in January has found that the Ferozepur SSP failed to discharge his duty though sufficient force was available. The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will send the report of the five-member committee headed by former apex court judge Indu Malhotra to the Centre for appropriate action.
“The Ferozepur SSP failed to discharge his duty to maintain law and order. He failed to do this even though sufficient force was available and even though he was informed two hours before that PM will enter that route,” the bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said while reading from the committee’s report.
A day ago, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, while welcoming PM Modi to Mohali, described the incident as “unfortunate”.
Questions were raised over the issue of security breach of the PM in the then Congress-ruled state when PM Modi’s cavalcade was grounded on January 5, leaving him stranded for 20 minutes on a flyover about 30 km from Hussainiwala after a blockade by some protesters. The PM returned without attending an event that he scheduled to attend.
The incident had led to a massive political row over the security lapses and the Home Minister had setup a three-member committee to probe the “serious lapses in the security arrangements” that “led to the exposure of the VVIP to grave security risk”.
In January, the Supreme Court appointed a committee, headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice Indu Malhotra, to probe if there was any criminal conspiracy in the incident and also probe the role of Punjab Police officers.
The Supreme Court had then said “…these questions can’t be left to one-sided inquiries. A judicially trained independent mind duly assisted with officers well acquired with security issues & Registrar general of HC who seized records would be best placed, to submit a comprehensive report.”
The top court had also directed the Registrar General of the Punjab and the Haryana High Court to provide the committee with all the seized documents pertaining to the security arrangements made by the Punjab government for the PM’s January 5 visit.
While the Central government and the BJP blamed the Congress government in Punjab for the security lapse. The state government, however, maintained that the PM had altered his route at the last minute.
(With inputs from PTI)
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