Robert Vadra. Robert Vadra.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has written a letter to the Home Ministry to review the “security status” of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra, which would decide whether he continues to be exempted from frisking at airports across the country.

Vadra is the only private person on the list of 31 exempted people, which includes the Chief Justice of India, former Presidents, the Lok Sabha Speaker and Supreme Court judges.

As per official rules, Vadra is supposed to be exempted only when he is travelling with SPG protectees, such as his wife Priyanka or any member of the Gandhi family. A committee comprising Home Ministry and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials will take a call on his security status and whether he should be accorded central police cover.

“We have received a letter from the ministry regarding the exemption granted to Robert Vadra. A meeting will soon be held to discuss the status. It also talks about allowing him access to VIP lounge at airports,” said a senior Home Ministry official. The letter was sent to MHA after Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju held a meeting of senior ministry officials to discuss Vadra’s security status.

The BJP has always been critical of Vadra being exempted from frisking and had questioned the logic behind it when it was in the opposition.

“We cannot prune the list on our own as it was made keeping in mind a security threat to Vadra. To strip him of the status, we need the Home Ministry’s view,” said a senior Civil Aviation Ministry official.

In 2011, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) had submitted a report to the Civil Aviation Ministry stating that nowhere in the world is such a privilege accorded to a private person.

The then UPA government was also in the process of pruning the list, but sources said it was meant for other categories — like providing such privileges to ambassadors of foreign countries and chargé d’affaires — on a reciprocal basis.

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