SC to hear petition on alleged security lapses during PM Modi's Punjab visit

|HT|

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition on alleged security lapses during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to poll-bound Punjab on Wednesday. The petition has been filed by an organisation, Lawyer's Voice, and will be taken up by the top court on Friday. Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana has asked petitioners to serve a copy on the Centre and Punjab government today. The Prime Minister’s rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled yesterday because of the unprecedented breach with some protesters blocking a route and forcing his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. After landing at Bathinda airport, PM Modi was on his way to the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident took place. The Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), security experts and former senior police officers all stressed on the dangerous precedent set by the incident The Union home ministry and the BJP pointed to lapses by the Punjab police and the state government, and alleged that dirty politics was at play.

“Today’s Congress-made happening in Punjab is a trailer of how this party thinks and functions. Repeated rejections by the people have taken them to the path of insanity,” tweeted Union home minister Amit Shah.

Union minister Smriti Irani asked if information about the PM’s route was leaked.

Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi expressed regret over the incident but rejected the BJP’s allegations. At a press conference, Channi said that his government had no information about the PM’s motorcade taking the road route.

(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.)