Home ministry to beef up PM Modi’s security after Maoist threat

The Union home ministry held a detailed review of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security on Monday and said it will be strengthened, days after Pune police claimed to have busted a Maoist plot to assassinate the PM.

According to ministry, home minister Rajnath Singh held a high-level meeting in which National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba and Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajiv Jain were present to review the prime minister’s security.

The home minister directed that all necessary measures be taken in consultation with other agencies to suitably strengthen the security arrangements for the prime minister, an official statement said.

“The NSA, HS and DIB were present in the meeting. The home minister has directed that all necessary measures be taken in consultation with other agencies to suitably strengthen the security arrangements for the prime minister,” the Home Minister’s office tweeted.

The home ministry also said it was in receipt of a report from Maharashtra Police regarding certain communications among individuals allegedly having links to Maoists organisations containing references to targeting the prime minister.

The development comes after Pune Police told a court on June 7 that they seized a “letter” from the Delhi residence of one of the five people arrested for having alleged “links” with the CPI(Maoist).

The purported letter allegedly mentioned of a plan to “assassinate” Modi in “another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident”, the police had told the court.

The Shiv Sena on Monday called the assassination plot against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis “a thrilling horror story” and said such threats have the tendency to surface ahead of elections.

In an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally said the two threat letters received by Fadnavis are “amusing” as, on the one hand, the Maoists are purchasing sophisticated ammunition, while, on the other hand, they are slack enough to leave behind an internal communication about an assassination plot for security agencies to discover.

In a tongue-in-cheek remark, the Sena said the Prime Minister’s security cover is already like that provided by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, and now chief minister Fadnavis must be given similarly high security.

“Not even a bird in the sky can pierce his security cover. The chief minister [Fadnavis ] has fortified Mantralaya so much that the common man faces difficulty entering the state secretariat. In this backdrop, a plot has been uncovered and that is no less than a mysterious horror film story,” the editorial said.

Wishing both Modi and Fadnavis long lives, the Sena said the security cover for both leaders must be increased. “It is okay if lakhs of people are killed, but the saviour of the lakhs has to live,” it mocked.

“Such information often surfaces around elections, but there is still time for elections in the country and in the state. So we are worried. Should the Prime Minister’s security cover be increased from what it is now, and should the chief minister get a security on the lines of Mossad? These questions have to be looked into,” the editorial said