Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the Prime Minister’s number two in the Union Cabinet, spent two hours last Satur-day negotiating the crowded streets of Mumbai as his security detail blundered.
Mukherjee, who has a high z-plus category security, was in Mumbai for a function to award the “best banks”.
From the airport, he was to be taken straight to the venue at the Oberoi Trident hotel in Bandra-Kurla, about 10 or 15 minutes away.
He was taken instead in the opposite direction to Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point, about an hour’s drive from the airport.
Mukherjee reached the venue two hours late.
Standard Z-plus security detail comprises two escort vehicles, two personal security officers, two watchers, a bulletproof car, two head constables, eight constables and a commanding officer.
But when the protected person hits the road, a personal security officer accompanies him or her in a bulletproof car escorted by a police jeep.
How could Mukherjee’s escort vehicle get it so wrong, specially when elaborate security arrangements had been made for his presence at the function?
An official in Mukherjee’s office attributed the incident to a communication gap with the police escort.
{{/usCountry}}An official in Mukherjee’s office attributed the incident to a communication gap with the police escort.
{{/usCountry}}The matter will be taken up with the Maharashtra government and the Union Home Ministry, he said.