Matang demands blood for ailing kin

NEW DELHI, March 7: Being part of VVIP security can be injurious to your health as the Z plus security detail attached to former minister, M...

NEW DELHI, March 7: Being part of VVIP security can be injurious to your health as the Z plus security detail attached to former minister, Matang Singh and his wife discovered. Last fortnight, the six Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel were asked to provide blood to Matang Singh’s ailing father-in-law at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. When they refused, they were “threatened” by the couple and the six complained formally to their Commandant.

Diwakar Prasad, Inspector General of Police (IG), and officiating DG, ITBP, when contacted by The Indian Express confirmed that he had received a complaint. “I told my boys to concentrate on doing their job. This kind of demand was made and refused. Our job is confined to protection and we will not entertain this kind of odd requests,” he said.

Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP and former minister for State in the PMO in the Rao Government, said that the incident had been “exaggerated.” The entire family, he said, “gave blood for myfather-in-law”. He alleged that the complaint was part of a Ministry of Home Affairs conspiracy to malign him.

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Singh is married to former journalist Manoranjana Gupta. The incident occurred when her father was recuperating after a surgery at AIIMS.

The commandos alleged that when they refused to donate blood saying it wasn’t part of their job, the Singhs threw “temper tantrums” and issued “threats.”

Sources said the Indo-Tibetan Border Police has decided to replace the “demoralized” security detail with a fresh lot. Both Singh and his wife are entitled to Z plus security.

Incidentally, Singh’s National Security Guard commandos had been earlier involved in a violent incident with some villagers near his farmhouse. A FIR had also been filed.

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