Congress leader Rahul Gandhi | Photo Credit: PTI

New Delhi: The Central government on Friday decided to withdraw the Special Protection Group (SPG) cover of Congress leaders Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and downgrade it to Z+ security. The move has come weeks after SPG protection was removed from another prominent Congress leader and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

After seeing their elite protection cover removed, Congress leadership has launched a blistering attack at the BJP-led Central government accusing it of "political vendetta". However, government sources say that it was the Gandhis who "violated" several norms of the SPG cover on numerous occasions which culminated in the removal of it.

News agency IANS quoted sources claiming, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi travelled in non-BR (bullet-resistant) vehicles on 18 visits to different parts of the country between 2005 and 2014. There were 1892 occasions when Rahul Gandhi travelled in a non-BR vehicle within Delhi and 247 times outside Delhi in such vehicle since 2015.

Here are the incidents cited by the sources in which Rahul Gandhi violated the SPG cover:

On August 4, 2017, Rahul Gandhi visited Banaskantha in Gujarat and travelled across the city in a non-BR vehicle against the advice of SPG personnel. There was an incident of stone-pelting on the non-BR car he was travelling in and the SPG PSO was injured in it.

The former Congress chief also travelled on the roof of vehicles on few occasions which is a clear violation of the provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act and security advice.

During a recent Parliament session, Union Home Minister told the Lok Sabha that Rahul Gandhi did not avail SPG BR vehicles on 100 out of 121 visits between 2015 and 2017.

Since 1991, Rahul Gandhi decided not to avail the SPG cover on 143 out of 156 foreign visits. He even dragged the name of SPG in his public speeches in the last five years which the current government feels is unacceptable.

Here are the incidents cited by the sources in which Sonia Gandhi violated the SPG cover:

The interim Congress chief did not use SPG BR vehicle on 50 occasions while travelling in New Delhi during 2015 and 2019. She also made 13 unscheduled visits across the country during that period in non-BR cars.

Sonia Gandhi did not take SPG personnel on 24 of her foreign visits between 2015 and 2019.

Here are the incidents cited by the sources in which Priyanka Gandhi violated the SPG cover: