Who gets state protection?
The sensational double murder at a Delhi farmhouse about a week ago of Gurdeep Chadha, better known as Ponty, and his younger brother Hardeep has been frontpaged virtually every single day and has caught nationwide attention on account of the extraordinary nature of the crime and the larger-than-life story of the late Ponty. While the investigation looks nowhere near complete, and the police — as is its wont in such matters — are brimming with theories that they float with panache to an obliging media on a daily basis, there is an aspect of the story that the state can ignore at the cost of its own legitimacy.
Ponty, as per media reports, was worth about `50,000 crore, and was at the head of a business empire that took in the liquor trade, real estate, shopping malls and cinema complexes across several states of North India. He had powerful friends. And here lies the rub — he and his deceased brother were protected by the armed police of more than one state. Police constables with assault rifles were their constant bodyguards. What are the rules that govern assigning of state protection to private individuals, and on such a scale?
When a state government seconds its police to protect private individuals, are they permitted to travel with their arms to other states? If so, where lies the difference between such businessmen and officials accorded state protection? Are there other cases of state police personnel crossing state boundaries, and particularly with weapons?
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