Government beefs up security for Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil amid reports of drone surveillance over his residence in Jalna; police investigating.
Mumbai: Amid reports that someone is carrying out surveillance over Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange-Patil’s residence in Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna through drones, the government beefed up his security and also constituted three teams of Jalna police to investigate who was flying the drones.
Four armed policemen and an escort van have been deployed for the security of the Maratha activist.
Leader of opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, on Wednesday in the Legislative Assembly, had raised the issue of the safety and security of the Maratha activist. Referring to the reports, Wadettiwar said that the surveillance was being conducted using drones over Jarange-Patil’s house and his village and it could lead to a serious security threat to the activist. The state government had assured the house to make a statement related to the issue.
Excise minister Shambhuraj Desai informed the Legislative Assembly on Thursday and said that local police were investigating the allegations of ‘drone surveillance’ but they have preliminarily found no substance. “The superintendent of police, Jalna, has formed three teams to investigate the allegations of the surveillance. The police received the complaint about it at 2.30am two days ago and a team was sent to the village where the activist lives. Three teams formed are still investigating the matter by checking phone calls and other records. We have beefed up the security to ensure the safety of the activist,” he said.
Jarange-Patil had said on Wednesday, “It is not so easy to kill me by such activities as there are over 60 million Marathas who support and love me.” Villagers from Jarange-Patil’s village had demanded Z-plus security for the activist.