The Union home ministry withdraws Special Protection Group (SPG) security cover which was provided to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Now they will be given a Z plus security cover of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
The ministry’s decision to withdraw the Gandhi family’s SPG cover follows a similar downgrade in former Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s security detail three months ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only SPG protectee as of now.
“The Z+ security cover by the CRPF is to be maintained, and no compromise in the security is to happen. A case by case security review is done as per a regular procedure,” a home ministry spokesperson said.
A central government official said the review of security cover is a periodical exercise based on threat perception which in turn is based on the professional assessment by security agencies. The decision to withdraw the security provided by the SPG is taken only after a review involving the cabinet secretariat and home ministry with inputs from various intelligence agencies.
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