The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will deploy women commandos on house protection duty for Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra; Union Home Minister Amit Shah; and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The commandos are also likely to accompany Ms. Vadra and Ms. Gandhi when they travel for election campaigns in Uttar Pradesh, a senior government official said. The CRPF trained 32 women in VIP protection duty and they are likely to be deployed in January 2022.
Z-plus cover
The CRPF accords Z-plus cover with Advance Security Liasion (ASL), the highest security cover, to only five individuals — the Gandhis, Mr. Shah and Dr. Singh.
“As per requirement, the women commandos will be deployed to secure the residences of the five individuals. A few of them will also be deployed in the security detail of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Sonia Gandhi when they travel for election campaigns, where their chance of interacting with public gatherings is more,” the official said.
The Gandhi family was accorded Z-plus cover by the CRPF in November 2019 after the Centre removed their Special Protection Group (SPG) security cover. Z-plus cover entails round-the-clock protection by around 35 commandos.
