SC appoints former judge Indu Malhotra as head of panel to investigate PM Modi's security lapse

|HT|

The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed its former judge Indu Malhotra as chairperson of a panel to investigate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security lapse in Punjab last week. The other members of the committee are the director-general of the National Investigation Agency, director-general of security of Punjab and registrar general of Punjab and Haryana High Court. The committee will look into the causes of the security breach that left PM Modi's convoy stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes while it was on its way to the National Martyrs Memorial in Hussainiwala, a few kilometres away from the Pakistan border.

The apex court said that the independent committee will also probe people responsible for it and find out measures to be taken in future for preventing such security breaches of VVIPs. It directed the registrar general of Punjab and Haryana High Court to submit documents on security arrangements for PM's visit to Justice Indu Malhotra.

It asked the committee to submit a report on the issue at the earliest.

The ministry of home affairs last Thursday constituted a three-member committee to probe into the lapses in the security arrangement during PM Modi's visit to Punjab's Ferozepur. The committee will be led by Sudhir Kumar Saxena, secretary (security), Cabinet Secretariat. The two other members are Balbir Singh, Joint Director, intelligence bureau, and S. Suresh, IG, special protection group (SPG).

The home ministry said that the convoy was stuck on a flyover around 30 kilometres away from the memorial of freedom fighters as the road was blocked by some protestors.

"This was a major lapse in the security of the Prime Minister,” the ministry said in a statement following the incident.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)