New Delhi, Jan 26: As many as 10 women police officers, in mufti, stood guard around Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday when he spoke from the dais at Chhatrasal Stadium.
Targeted by a woman, who threw ink at Kejriwal on January 17 during a function at the same stadium, the police were in no mood to leave any ‘loose ends’ this time. The Aam Aadmi Party had cried foul, calling the ink attack as a “rehearsal for an assassination attempt on the CM”.
The women guards, wearing track suits, were part of the 20 police personnel who were guarding the Delhi CM at the stadium — venue for Republic Day celebrations on Monday.
These personnel were in addition to officers who are part of the Z-plus category security detail given to Kejriwal.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Vijay Singh told HT that the decision to deploy female and male personnel in plain clothes was taken to ensure that “the untoward incident was not repeated during the state function”.
“Our special close protection group included trained women and male cops who were deployed along the periphery of stage where the chief guest and other dignitaries were present. Their objective was to stop anybody from approaching the stage,” said Singh.
Sources said the arrangements were made in the wake of allegations that the Delhi Police were not able to prevent Bhavna Arora, an Aam Aadmi Sena activist who threw ink at Kejriwal, from reaching close to the dais from where the Delhi CM was addressing the participants. Even Arora had alleged that she was ‘manhandled’ by the AAP volunteers.
