Home Ministry constitutes 3-member panel to probe PM's 'security breach'

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 6

Taking a serious note of the “security breach” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ferozepur in Punjab on Wednesday, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday constituted a three-member committee, headed by Sudhir Kumar Saxena, Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat, to enquire into the “serious lapses” that led to the exposure of the VVIP to “grave risk”.

Announcing this, a spokesperson of the MHA said, “The MHA has constituted a committee, which will be led by Sudhir Kumar Saxena and will comprise Balbir Singh, Joint Director, IB, and S Suresh, IG, Special Protection Group (SPG).”

The committee is advised to submit its report at the earliest, he added

In what the MHA had on Wednesday described as a “'major security lapse'', the Prime Minister’s cavalcade was stranded on a flyover due to a blockade by farm protesters in Ferozepur on Wednesday.

He returned from poll-bound Punjab without attending any event, including a rally, and the Centre blamed the Congress government in Punjab for the security breach. Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, however, claimed that a last-minute change of travel plans by the Prime Minister led to the situation.

Today, the Channi Government too constituted a two-member committee to conduct a “'thorough enquiry” into the incident.