Death threat to PM Modi, leaked security scheme spark political row in Kerala

BJP has come down heavily on the “grave security breach and police failure”.

A 49-page correspondence circulated widely in the media and online platforms appeared to list the PM’s itinerary and timings in granular detail during his two-day Kerala visit starting on April 24. | Photo Credit: ANI

A handwritten letter threatening to harm Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his arrival in Kerala on a two-day visit on April 24 and an alleged leak of the purported security scheme related to the VVIP’s protection has sparked off a political row.

The police were yet to testify to the “compromised” security scheme’s authenticity. Nevertheless, the 49-page correspondence circulated widely in the media and online platforms appeared to list the PM’s itinerary and timings in granular detail and specified the responsibilities assigned to individual officers tasked with his protection.

Union Minister slams State Government

The Bharatiya Janata Party has come down heavily on the “grave security breach and police failure”. Union Minister of State V. Muraleedharan said the police have no clue about the “death threat’s” provenance or motive. He also said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should explain how the PM’s “classified security arrangement scheme” leaked.

Mr. Muraleedharan said the Elathur train arson incident, which had the shades of a terrorist attack and claimed three lives, emphasised the threat to national security posed by radicals “operating with impunity” in Kerala. He alleged that the State police viewed the PM’s security lightly.

Police investigation

A senior official said the State police were verifying the letter’s provenance and the author’s motive. Investigators infer that a person in Kochi had possibly written the letter impersonating a neighbour with whom he had an axe to grind over some personal disputes related to parish levy collection.

Plainclothes officers visited the “sender’s” home and interviewed him. The police have sent the letter for forensic graphological examination to check its veracity and identify the “real” author.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) State Committee office in Thiruvananthapuram received the letter last week. The mail threatened a suicide attack against Mr. Modi. BJP State President K. Surendran handed the letter to the State Police Chief, Anil Kant.

Unusually, the threatening correspondence carried the name, mobile phone number and signature of the purported sender, a retired college employee in Kochi.

Security “mishandling”

The letter’s existence emerged in the media after the purportedly “classified police document” detailing Mr. Modi’s security arrangements found its way, somewhat intriguingly, into the public domain.

The “leaked security scheme” mentions the letter in its “threat perception” analysis in the context of Mr. Modi’s impending visit.

Catalogued threats

The “security scheme” catalogued the possible threats to the Prime Minister.

The paper, supposedly meant for limited department circulation, notes that the recently proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) had a significant cadre presence in Kerala.

It said the outfit remained active under different guises in the State and required intense scrutiny ahead of Mr. Modi’s arrival.

The document noted that radicalised youth from Kerala, including women, had aligned themselves with various Jihadist groups, including the Islamic State and Jabhat Nusra.

It also called for increased watchfulness, given the recent arrest of certain radical elements by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Kakkamala in Kannur.

The document also flagged possible black flag protests against Mr. Modi, who will likely hold a roadshow in Kochi on April 24.

The police also factored in the political context of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) questionnaire campaign and mustering of cadres to “bust the Modi myth”. The paper did not specify any youth organisation by name.

Mr. Surendran said the State police’s “mishandling” of VVIP security would not take the sheen of Mr. Modi’s public outreach programmes. He said the police had botched or gone slack in their investigations and further exacerbated the situation by failing to ensure the PM’s security scheme remained classified.

Special Branch enquiry

The State Special Branch has reportedly launched an internal enquiry into how the security scheme, which included the name and deployment of scores of officers, ended up in the public domain.