A day after a Delhi policeman visited Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's Tughlak Road residence to make enquiries, the party attempted to corner the Central government demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi answer for the episode.

The Congress alleged political espionage by the Delhi Police. While the police termed it a “safety audit”, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi described it as “unwarranted and weird enquiries”.

Mr. Singhvi said: “This kind of snooping, surveillance and intrusion in a political opponent's life may be the Gujarat model but it's not the Indian model.”

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police struggled to maintain that it was a routine security audit. Mr. Gandhi is an SPG protectee and already enjoys 24x7 cover from the elite security unit.

Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi told reporters that the enquiries were part of law and order arrangements and far from being mala fide.

“Not just Mr. Gandhi, we make such routine visits to the addresses of other VIPs including the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and other protectees,” Mr. Bassi said.

The Commissioner stuck to his version of the episode, terming it a primary police duty aimed at gauging and quelling threats to “significant personalities”.

Police sources told The Hindu that the episode consisted of a “lower functionary” from the Tughlak Road police station “carrying out orders”.

The official concerned — an ASI — reached Mr. Gandhi’s residence on Friday with a bona fide proforma bearing the Delhi Police logo and containing questions pertaining to the physical appearance of Mr. Gandhi, who is currently not in the country.

“He was told to update details pertaining to the records of VIPs residing in the jurisdiction of his beat and did as he was told,” said the source.

When told that Mr. Gandhi was unavailable, the source said, the policeman left the proforma with SPG personnel deputed at Mr. Gandhi’s residence with the “request that he (Mr. Gandhi) fill it up and submit it at the Tughlak Road police station post his return”.

Source: TH