Security cover of 424 people to be restored from June 7, Punjab govt tells HC

PTI, Jun 3, 2022, 9:00 AM IST

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The Punjab and Haryana High Court was on Thursday informed that the security cover of 424 protectees which was scaled down on a temporary basis will be restored from June 7.

The Punjab government last week had pruned the security cover of 424 people, including Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala, who was shot dead on Sunday.

Punjab’s senior deputy advocate general Gaurav Dhuriwala told the High Court about this after a petition of former deputy chief minister O P Soni against the withdrawal of his security came up for a hearing in the court of Justice Raj Mohan Singh.

Former minister O P Soni in his petition had sought quashing of the order, in which his security was decategorized from the ‘Z’ category.

Soni’s counsel Madhu Dayal said the state government withdrew the security on the ”pick and choose” basis rather than assessing threat perception.

On the submission of the state’s counsel that 18 security men had been given to the former deputy chief minister, Dayal argued that these security men work in three shifts, therefore, only six security men guard Soni at one point of time.

She also submitted that Soni is the resident of Amritsar where the maximum security men have been deployed in the wake of the anniversary of Operation Bluestar.

Soni’s counsel also questioned the deployment of Punjab Police personnel with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is already protected by the Delhi police.

The next date of hearing is July 22, said Dayal.

The Punjab government had curtailed the security cover in the wake of ”Ghallughara week” and the anniversary of Operation Bluestar, which was carried out by the Army to flush out militants from the Golden Temple complex in June 1984.

At that time, the Punjab Police had said that the security personnel were ”being withdrawn on a purely temporary basis in connection with an emergent law and order duty”.

A day after the state government’s decision, Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the state’s Mansa district.

The opposition has slammed the AAP government in the state for the move and making the names of the protectees ”public”.