Government had to activate Plan B to get Ramdev to Dehradun

NEW DELHI: The government had its ‘Plan B’ ready hours before Delhi Police picked up Baba Ramdev early on Sunday.

The government wanted to put him on a flight away from media glare and had stationed a BSF helicopter at Safdarjung airport to transport Baba to Dehradun. As a back-up , Delhi Police, in consultation with the home ministry , had the paramilitary force’s Embraer aircraft ready at Palam technical area suspecting that it might have to use this option in case its initial plan didn’t succeed.

“Our plan to use Safdarjung airport got leaked and we had to rush Baba to Palam technical area from where he was sent to Dehradun using a BSF aircraft,” an official said.

The official said the Centre had to inform the Uttarakhand government about Baba’s externment as he was supposed to be sent to Hardwar via Dehradun. But the information that he would be flown from Safdarjung airport got leaked from Dehradun and Ramdev’s followers and media gathered there quickly, he added.

After seeing the gathering and TV crew outside Safdarjung airpot, Delhi Police kept Ramdev in a government guesthouse for a few hours and then took him to Palam technical area. Two police officials accompanied the yoga guru to Dehradun in the Embraer aircraft.

As per the externment order, which came into effect the moment police served it to him at midnight, Ramdev was not supposed to turn himself away. A section of officials in Delhi are asking whether Baba should not have been booked for defying the order when he jumped into the crowd and asked them not to obey the law.

Sources, however, said Delhi Police did not want to complicate matters and preferred to evict him from Ramlila Maidan and transport him as quickly as possible to Hardwar. Preparations for the midnight action began at 4 pm on Saturday.