india

Updated: Nov 12, 2019 00:04 IST

A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the High Court, Gwalior bench, by an advocate on Monday appealing to the court to direct the central government to restore the Special Protection Group (SPG) cover to the Gandhi family, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi.

Advocate Umesh Bohre who filed the petition said, “The SPG cover was withdrawn at a time when Article 370 was abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir and the Supreme Court’s verdict was delivered on the Ayodhya dispute. It was Rajiv Gandhi who had got the lock on the gate of Ram Lalla opened in Ayodhya.”

“The Gandhi family has already lost two of its members. First then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated and then former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed. Just before Rajiv Gandhi was killed the SPG cover with him had been withdrawn. Had the SPG cover remained, he would have been alive today,” Bohre said.

The advocate said he had also appealed to the high court to ask for the report of the security agency on grounds of which the SPG cover to the Gandhi family was withdrawn by the Centre. People must know what was written in the report on the basis of which the SPG cover has been withdrawn, he added.

He said even otherwise the SPG Act, 1988 included people like the Prime Minister of India, his family, former Prime Ministers and their families.