Thackeray family’s security arrangements downsized

According to Sena (UBT) leaders, escort vehicles and pilot cars have been taken away from Thackeray, his wife Rashmi and sons Aaditya and Tejas.

Mumbai: In a kerfuffle over Uddhav Thackeray’s security cover, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders stated that the security arrangements hitherto enjoyed by the Sena (UBT) chief and his family had been reduced on Wednesday by the Shinde-Fadnavis government. However, according to home department officials, there was no change, and only the extra arrangements over and above the security category had been removed.

Mumbai, India - June 21, 2023 : Police Security removed Maharashtra EX CM and Shivsena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Chief Uddhav Thackeray at Matoshree, Bandra, in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (Photo by Vijay Bate/HT Photo)

According to Sena (UBT) leaders, escort vehicles and pilot cars have been taken away from Thackeray, his wife Rashmi and sons Aaditya and Tejas. The gunmen in a bunker outside Kalanagar society, which houses the Thackeray bungalow, Matoshree, have also been removed and the number security personnel at his residence reduced from 12 to five.

Thackeray faction MP Vinayak Raut on Wednesday criticised the Shinde-Fadnavis government for the act. “Even Congress governments never reduced the security of the Thackeray family,” he said. “But the Shinde-Fadnavis government has done it even as it provides security to former corporators and local leaders from Thane. This is just playing cheap politics.”

According to home department sources, however, the status of security provided to the Thackeray family has not changed, and Uddhav Thackeray continues to get Z-plus security. “Their category remains the same,” said an official. “During the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi regime, they were given more security than the prescribed limit for their category. Only those extra security arrangements have been withdrawn.”

The Mumbai police too claimed that there was no security cut. “…there is no withdrawal or downgrading in the scale of security of any categorised protected person residing within the jurisdictional limit of the Mumbai police,” said an official statement.

Z-plus security for Bal Thackeray after Babri demolition

Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray was given Z-plus security at his residence ‘Matoshree’ after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the riots and serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1992-1993. Thackeray had openly declared his support to the Babri Masjid demolition, while his party was involved in the Hindu-Muslim riots. In the March 1993 blasts masterminded by Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon as retaliation for the riots, one blast took place near Shiv Sena Bhavan.

There was also an intelligence report of the time, which claimed that Bal Thackeray was on the hit list of terrorist organisations. Therefore, the Congress government, besides providing Z-plus security to Thackeray, also set up a bunker with gunmen outside the gate of Kalanagar, the society in which Thackeray lives in Bandra East. Even after his death, successive state governments continued the security arrangements given to the Thackeray family, as his son Uddhav Thackeray continued as party chief of the Shiv Sena.