PM Modi's convoy was stuck for 20 minutes on a bridge
The erstwhile Congress government in Punjab played with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security, the BJP alleged on Thursday after a Supreme Court-appointed committee gave its report on the security breach during his visit to the state in January.
Alleging a "conspiracy", party leader and Union minister Anurag Thakur said then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the director general of police "were missing" during Modi's visit.
On January 5, Modi's convoy was stranded on a flyover due to a blockade by protesters in Ferozepur after which he returned from Punjab without attending any event.
The top court on January 12 had appointed the committee to probe the breach, saying these questions cannot be left to "one-sided inquiries" as they needed "judicially trained independent minds" to investigate.
In its report, the committee said the then Ferozepur senior superintendent of police failed to discharge his duty even though sufficient force was available.
"Prime Minister Modi's convoy was stopped in the middle of a bridge, only 100 metres away from protesters and 10 km away from Pakistan. The Punjab Police remained a mute spectator and then chief minister Channi was taking instructions from his party bosses in Delhi," Thakur said.
"Anything could have happened to the prime minister. Just two minutes were enough," he said, pointing that Modi had to wait on the bridge for 20 minutes as Channi was busy on the call.
Thakur also questioned who gave information to the agitators regarding the prime minister's route? "And if it was a safe and sanitized route, how come agitators reach there? Who the SSP was talking to over the phone?" he asked and added the security breach was not an oversight but pre-planned.
In Chandigarh, senior BJP leader Tarun Chugh alleged that it was a glaring and calculated breach of security effected by the then Congress government in Punjab.
"The BJP had been always demanding stringent action against officials responsible for it because the prime minister was not only left stranded close to the Indo-Pak border but also the deliberate negligence of the state police was starkly exposed," the BJP general secretary said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann extended a warm welcome to Prime Minister Modi who visited the state to inaugurate the 300-bed Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Mohali's Mullanpur and described as "unfortunate" the January 5 incident.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)