‘Fan’ breaches PM Modi security cover in Bengal, touches his feet on dais

SANTINIKETAN: A Nadia resident created a major scare, breaking through the elite Special Protection Group’s security cordon and going right up to PM Narendra Modi, India’s most heavily protected individual, just after the conclusion of the Visva-Bharati convocation on Friday morning.

Swapan Marit, who came to Tagore’s campus from his Krishnanagar home about 120 km away, did not appear to have anything sinister on his mind: he touched Modi’s feet and presented the PM with a Tagore poster before he was apprehended and taken away by police.

Swapan Marit broke through several layers of security cordon


Modi was taken by surprise but got over it almost immediately. He had already accepted the Tagore picture by the time an SPG personnel reacted, ran up to the dais and overpowered Marit. The entire episode happened so quickly that even many of those who were close to the dais, including Visva-Bharati officiating vice-chancellor Sabujkali Sen, did not know about it till later.

He ran up to the dais to touch the PM’s feet

Cops detained Marit and took him for questioning to Bolpur police station.

He presented him a Tagore portrait

Officials kept him there till late night but said it did not appear that he had anything on his mind except getting close to Modi and gifting him the Tagore poster.

The breach occurred when the other guests, including Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, were leaving the dais after Modi, as the university chancellor, declared the convocation over. Hasina and Banerjee had just stepped off the stage when Marit rushed up the steps towards Modi.

Officials later told TOI that the PM’s immediate security detail was being handled by SPG personnel and state police personnel were manning the area outside the sanitised zone. An elaborate security arrangement was in place with hundreds of police personnel setting up checkpoints on every road leading to the two venues, Amra Kunja (where the convocation was held) and Bangladesh Bhavana, of the day.

Marit’s may have been a serious security breach, but it was not the only attempt of the day. Another invitee to the Bangladesh Bhavana event tried taking a painting inside — again meant as a gift for PM Modi — but alert cops confiscated it before he could enter the venue.