Rahul Gandhi with Priyanka Gandhi | Photo Credit: ANI

Key Highlights The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner saying that he was trying to gain ‘cheap popularity’ Party leader Anand Sharma said that restoration of the SPG cover was in national interest Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that those having objections to this can go to court and challenge it

New Delhi: The Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected the petition filed by advocate Umesh Bohre who had sought immediate restoration of protection to the Gandhi family on grounds that two members of the family, who had served as former prime ministers (Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi), were assassinated.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner saying that the petitioner was trying to gain ‘cheap popularity’.

The Narendra Modi-led NDA government had recently withdrawn SPG cover for Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, former party president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Protesting against the Centre’s move to withdraw SPG security cover of Gandhi family and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Congress had raised the issue in the Rajya Sabha urging the government to restore special protection.

Party leader Anand Sharma said that restoration of the SPG cover was in the national interest, adding that there was a threat to the personal safety, security and life of the four leaders and hence the Centre should rise above "partisan politics".

"Please rise above this and review and restore. That would be in the national interest as otherwise the intention would be questioned today, tomorrow and in the future," news agency IANS quoted the Congress leader as saying.

However, the Modi government refused to restore the security cover maintaining that such decisions were based on a thorough review of threats by the home ministry panel, saying that no political intervention is involved.

Supporting the Centre’s decision, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said that those having objections to this can go to court and challenge it.

He further said that when the UPA was in power, the security cover of some politicians was downgraded.

The Rajya Sabha MP also said that the threat to the family arose after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE); however, it has subsequently disappeared as there is no LTTE and the attitude of the protectees (Sonia Gandhi and other family members) towards people convicted by the Supreme Court for the assassination of the former prime minister changed.