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The Indian government has agreed to provide billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani with top-level security cover following threats to his life, a home ministry spokesman said yesterday. |
The country’s richest man, who controls the Reliance Industries Ltd conglomerate, personally requested the “Z Category” security that is usually reserved for politicians and top-level civil servants.
The government has not yet decided whether Ambani will pay the government for the services, and how many policemen will guard him, spokesman H Rahman said.
A source familiar with the issue, who declined to be named, said Ambani may pay the government up to Rs900,000 ($16,600) a month for protection by armed commandos.
Reliance already provides protection for Ambani, whose personal worth Forbes magazine has put at $21.5bn, the source said. However, the company lacks government intelligence and, by law, private security guards are not allowed to carry sophisticated weapons.
Under “Z Category” cover, Ambani will have 22 security guards, an escort and a pilot car, an arrangement similar to that provided for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ruling Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi.
A Reliance spokesman declined to speak on the matter and Mumbai police were not immediately available for comment.
The Indian Mujahideen had reportedly threatened to harm Ambani for backing Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to make a bid to become prime minister in polls next year.
Reliance is a major investor in Gujarat, the scene of anti-Muslim violence in 2002 soon after Modi became leader, which left around 2,000 people dead.
The letter also accused Ambani of grabbing public land intended for the Muslim community to build Antilla, his 27-storey residence in the city, believed to be the world’s most expensive private home, reports say.
The Press Trust of India news agency said the city police force was also planning to strengthen security around the South Mumbai tower.
According to Central Reserve Police Forces sources, the home ministry wrote to the paramilitary force asking it to take the responsibility of Ambani’s protection with immediate effect. The CRPF, which is preoccupied with its primary task of fighting Maoist rebels, is in the midst of identifying and relocating its elite commandos to guard Ambani in Mumbai and during his travel to other parts of the country.
The CRPF is not too enthusiastic about its diversion to VIP protection. “CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) is the designated central paramilitary agency for VIP protection. We are too busy with our duties in Naxal-hit zones,” said an official, wondering why its commandos, trained in jungle warfare, should be diverted to VIP security.
The Mumbai police who were investigating Ambani’s complaint were planning to set up a police post at Antilla and had in the meantime tightened security around it.
This was followed by a further threat analysis by the federal intelligence agencies who recommended the heightened security cover which the home minister is personally believed to have approved.
Social media websites were abuzz with criticism of the move, with many questioning why highly trained commandos should protect a private citizen.
Among them was Arvind Kejriwal, an anti-graft activist, who said: “He is such a rich man. He can hire the best security agencies. Why does the government need to provide him with security?”
“None of the political parties is opposing this move. This clearly shows Mukesh Ambani is in the good books of all political parties,” Kejriwal added.
Communist parties too lashed out at the government, saying common people have been left in the lurch as gruesome incidents of rape keep happening.