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Journalism of Courage
THE Maharashtra government on Friday scaled down and, in some cases, removed the security cover of several Opposition leaders, including former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, former Home Ministers Dilip Walse-Patil and Anil Deshmukh, among others. As per protocol, a security review is done by the police every few months. Based on intelligence inputs about threat perceptions faced by public figures, a decision is taken on whether to maintain, enhance or reduce the security cover of these figures.
As per sources, the security cover of nearly 25 leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has been removed. This means these political leaders will not have police personnel accompanying them or standing guard at their residences.
Those whose security cover has been completely removed include incarcerated NCP leader Nawab Malik, Congress leaders Vijay Wadettiwar, Balasaheb Thorat, Nana Patole, Satej Patil; NCP’s Dhananjay Munde, Narhari Zirwal, former deputy speaker of the State Legislative Assembly, and Eknath Khadse.
Shiv Sena’s (Uddhav B Thackeray) Bhaskar Jadhav, Anil Parab and Sanjay Raut — currently behind bars in the Patra chawl case — too have lost their security cover. Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, both former CMs, have been provided ‘Y category’ security.
Interestingly, Milind Narvekar, personal secretary and trusted aide of former CM Uddhav Thackeray, has been provided ‘Y plus escort’ cover.
In the past few months, there had been murmurs of Narvekar joining the Eknath Shinde camp as well, especially after the CM visited his residence during Ganesh Chaturthi.
The security cover of Uddhav and his family has been retained. The security cover of NCP president Sharad Pawar and his family, including his daughter and Baramati Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule, too has been retained, as also the security cover of NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad.
While the Opposition alleged that this was politics of revenge, government sources said that a periodic review was undertaken by a committee comprising of senior officials.
Sources said that this was the first security review that was undertaken after the Eknath Shinde-led government was sworn in in the state on June 30 this year.
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