Police visit to Rahul Gandhi's home: It’s height of idiocy, say ex-police chiefs

NEW DELHI: Two former Delhi Police Commissioners have told ET that no security survey of MPs through a pro forma, as given to the office of Rahul Gandhi, was ever done in their tenure and termed the entire exercise as “the height of idiocy”.

The MHA has sought a report from the Delhi Police and will be now asking it to review the said pro forma, delete “unwanted questions”, and also review its applicability to MPs, ministry sources said. BK Gupta, the Delhi Police Commissioner from 2010 to 2012, told ET he had never ordered a security survey of MPs in his time.

“Never in my entire tenure at any post have I seen or ordered such a survey of the honourable MPs,” Gupta told ET, an assertion that punctures the current Police Commissioner BS Bassi’s claims that the survey at Gandhi’s residence was a “routine exercise”. “This is height of idiocy…if you need details on MPs, you can go and simply collect it from the Parliament Secretariat,” Gupta told ET.

Ved Marwah, a former Delhi Police chief, said he had never heard of the pro forma at all — which asks for details like the colour of the person’s eyes and hair among other personal details. “There is no such form I am aware of… How can VIP security be clubbed with this? VIP security can’t be treated as routine activity and I think immediate corrective steps will now follow. This was avoidable.”