BHUBANESWAR: The Commissionerate Police, which admitted to a lapse leading to Chief Minister’s security breach on Thursday, has recommended to the Government to place an ACP-ranked officer under suspension over the fracas.
More heads are likely to roll even as a probe into the incident has been ordered. Director General of Police Sanjiv Marik has asked the Commissionerate Police to furnish a report on the incident on the basis of which further course of action would be taken.
Police Commissioner, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Dr RP Sharma said he has recommended that Inspector-In-Charge of Kharavela Nagar police station Sk Sarifuddin, who was promoted to ACP rank recently, be suspended.
“We are reviewing the whole incident and corrective measures would be taken after we have assessed it,” he said.
He acknowledged that the breach occurred due to a failure on part of the Intelligence, security and non-adherence of the VVIP evacuation drill.
Sources said the Intelligence input about the Congress demonstration was communicated to Commissionerate Police only when the CM started for Utkal University.
Sharma said though the State Intelligence Wing had provided information on Congress activists resorting to such a protest, it was general in nature and not pin-pointed. But he acknowledged that the local police also failed in collecting necessary Intelligence inputs.
The Police Commissioner said the cops who were present at the spot should have prevented the situation to get out of hand and it is being investigated why they failed to do so. “We are also looking into why the VVIP evacuation protocol was not followed when the protestors intercepted the convoy,” he said.
As per standard drills, the convoy makes a brisk evacuation from the spot and takes a detour. In the 2013 December incident, the convoy had taken a different route to reach Naveen Nivas without facing any problem.