The CRPF, which recently took over the duties of guarding RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, has raised concerns in ensuring a ‘fool proof’ Z category security to the business tycoon in the absence of local logistical support to its squad.
The para-military force has written to the Union Home ministry alerting it about possible limitations its personnel may face in the event of an attack on Mr. Ambani who has been given VIP security.
Official sources said the CRPF has desired that the Home Ministry take immediate steps and notify all the states in the country to provide a local police squad whenever the VIPs under its elite ‘Z’ category cover move in their respective jurisdictions.
ADVERTISEMENT
Also, they said local intelligence and data on topography should be provided to its 28-member squad commander moving along with the protectee.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has recently deployed an elite squad of its commandos for securing Ambani who has been accorded a ‘Z’ category security after the Home Ministry analysed security threats to the industrialist and found them to be ‘positive’
The force has reasoned that its security team deployed with the VIP is a mix of commandos coming from various parts of the country and they do not always know escape routes and potential threats particular to an area and at the place where the VIP they are securing is on the move, like in Mumbai or Kolkata.
ADVERTISEMENT
The CRPF has asked notification of this arrangement in specific context of Ambani, whose security duty it has just taken over, while it has also asked for providing a similar facility to its new ‘Z’ class protectees.
It has recently taken over the security of media personality and former Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Matang Singh under the same category.
With Mr. Ambani’s security under its belt, this is the first time that the CRPF is providing VIP security to a private person on the lines of a similar cover it extends to government functionaries in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.
In the case of Mr. Ambani, the security expenditure will be borne by him which is estimated to cost about Rs 15-16 lakh per month.
Under the ‘Z’ category security, Mr. Ambani will have pilot and follow-on vehicles with commandos armed with sophisticated weapons and they will give him proximate security every time he moves in Mumbai or any other part of country.
A security and threat analysis conducted by central security agencies earlier had recommended that Mr. Ambani should be provided round-the-clock armed security cover after which the Home Ministry issued the orders in this regard and asked the CRPF to take up the task.
The CRPF subsequently earmarked a 28-member team for the job, taking personnel out from its battalion based in Uttar Pradesh.
Sometime back, Mr. Ambani’s office had also informed the Mumbai police about threat letters being issued to the honcho purportedly on behalf of the home grown terror group Indian Mujahideen (IM).