Hyderabad: Security cover of nearly 300 persons, including director general of police (DGP) CV Anand and several former DGPs, has been downgraded in the backdrop of the eradication of the CPI (Maoist) threat. As part of the move, police will withdraw bulletproof (BP) vehicles and reduce gunmen and other security personnel for select protectees, based on threat perception.The Security Review Committee (SRC), which comprises the DGP, Additional DG (Intelligence), representatives of the Intelligence Security Wing (ISW), home department, Intelligence Bureau and other intelligence agencies, periodically reviews the threat perception of VIPs. The committee recently took these decisions after a gap of three years.So far, 382 policemen deployed for VIP security have been withdrawn from specific duties and will be reassigned to other responsibilities in the coming days.During the SRC meeting, the security cover of serving and former police officers, as well as public representatives, was reviewed. Among those affected were 20 former DGPs, including M Mahendar Reddy, Anurag Sharma, Swaranjit Sen, Arvind Rao, Jitender and Shivadhar Reddy, whose security details were trimmed.“Several retired officers were granted BP vehicles, and in some cases pilots, multiple gunmen and guards, citing the Maoist threat. Now that the state is free from Naxals, it was decided to rationalise the deployment of resources,” sources privy to the SRC decisions said on condition of anonymity. In a related decision, gunmen provided to former MLAs, MLCs and local body representatives have been completely withdrawn.Following chief minister A Revanth Reddy’s decision to downgrade his own security cover from Z+ to Z as part of austerity measures nearly two months ago, several officers reportedly followed suit. The DGP’s security has been reduced to a two-vehicle convoy without a pilot vehicle.In recent years, serving officers such as CV Anand, Hyderabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar, Greyhounds chief Anil Kumar, Intelligence chief Vijay Kumar and others had voluntarily given up their bulletproof vehicles. The withdrawn BP vehicles will be phased out and put up for sale over time.However, former IPS officer-turned-politician RS Praveen Kumar objected to the downgrading of his security detail. Intelligence Security Wing (ISW) officials reportedly informed him that his vehicle would be withdrawn and he would be moved out of the X category, resulting in the reduction of his security from 2+2 gunmen to a single gunman.
