​ Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann has absolved senior Indian Administrative Service officer and the state’s former chief secretary Anirudh Tiwari of any wrong doing, who was among the officials indicted by a Supreme Court- appointed committee looking into the breach of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s security during a visit to the state on January 5, 2022, according to official documents seen by HT.

The Union government is awaiting a report on action taken against erring officials, and Union home secretary Rajiv Bhalla, has already sent three reminders to the Punjab government. The Punjab government has thus far acted only against seven state-cadre police officials, who have been suspended.

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The breach took place when the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government was governing the state.

Former chief secretary Vijay Kumar Jaunja, in response to the Centre’s reminder sent a four-page note to the CM for action against Tiwari in May, HT learns. HT also learns that in May, an officer posted in the chief minister’s office, sought a reply from Tiwari, who passed the buck to the Punjab Police, and said that the chief secretary’s office does not keep a “blue book” which lays down the protocol for visits by the Prime Minister and other dignitaries.

A panel headed by retired Supreme Court justice Indu Malhotra had indicted Tiwari for not deputing any officer to travel with the Prime Minister’s motorcade. He was the officer responsible for coordinating with the central government for the visit of the Prime Minister. In his testimony, Tiwari said that Husan Lal, the then principal secretary to the CM, was to join the convoy of the PM as a nominee of the chief secretary, but tested positive for Covid-19 and thus could not accompany the PM.

“The chief secretary could have easily deputed a senior officer from the civil administration to accompany the PM at Bathinda, since it was known on January 4 itself that the PS to the CM would not be travelling with the entourage. It is pertinent to mention that divisional commissioner RK Kaushik was present at the Bathinda airport, and could have easily been deputed to accompany the PM, particularly since no operational duty was assigned to him”, the committee’s report said.

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It added that the chief secretary convened a meeting on December 29, 2021 on the visit but that there was no other meeting convened by him to ensure that all agencies concerned with the visit were co-ordinating with each other, and were implementing the decisions taken in the first co-ordination meeting. “Post the visit, as per the blue book, it is mandatory for the chief secretary to convene a co-ordination meeting to assess the adequacy of the arrangements made, and suggest improvement for the future visit. This was also not done in this case,” the report said.

In response to these observations, Tiwari said that “the blue book” is always in the custody of the security agencies and no copy is with either the office of chief secretary or the general administration department.

Further, he added that the blue book clearly places responsibility for implementation of its provisions on the DGP, inspector general of police, assistant by IG and DIG of (CID/Intelligence/security). There is no mention in any of the rules in the blue book that chief secretary must appoint a nominee to accompany the PM, he said, adding that even the general administration department even didn’t ask him to do so.

The observations of the committee were therefore entirely misplaced, he added. He also added that after the breach, he has overseen three successful visits by the PM to the state state.

Absolving the IAS officer, the CM observed in documents seen by HT that “as regards, the observations made by the inquiry committee, I have gone through the explanation submitted by officer. He has submitted that he has done all necessary preparatory groundwork. With regard to not deputing a nominee in the convoy (who actually has no security related responsibility), was a systematic error, which has since been rectified and a new robust SOP for the PM Visit has been put in place, and thereafter many visits of PM have been conducted flawlessly. As such, no further action is required to be taken against Anirudh Tiwari”.

The CM also observed that “it may be ensured in the future that all VIP and VVIPs visits are conducted strictly as per the blue book, relevant Act and rules and the instructions issued by government from time to time”.

HT tried to reach out to chief minister’s office for remarks on the issue but did not get any response.

Tiwari did not respond to calls and texts from HT seeking comment. HT was the first to report the findings submitted by the five-member committee led by retired justice Indu Malhotra.

The report was submitted to the apex court and the Union government on August 25 last year. In September, the latter forwarded it to the state government.

The Supreme Court ordered the inquiry after the convoy of PM Modi was stranded for half an hour on a flyover when he was travelling by road from Bathinda airport to Ferozepur on January 5, 2022. A belligerent crowd of about 300 protesters gathered at the end of the flyover, prompting the special protection group, which guards the Prime Minister, to halt the convoy and head back to the airport.

The report indicted Punjab police brass for its casual and negligent attitude, and referred to the incident as “a colossal failure in planning and coordination”.