Maoist plot to kill PM ‘uncovered’

Mumbai/New Delhi, June 9

Five persons arrested earlier this week for their alleged links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) were plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Pune police told a Sessions Court on Thursday.
The police produced a “letter” which they said had been found at the Delhi residence of prisoners’ rights activist Rona Wilson, stating the Maoists were planning to eliminate PM Modi in an attack similar to that on former PM Rajiv Gandhi in Tamil Nadu in 1991.
The letter is addressed to one Comrade Prakash by sender “R”. It mentions the need for Rs 8 crore to procure an M4 rifle and four lakh rounds of ammunition for the purpose. “The Modi-led Hindu fascism is bulldozing its way into the lives of indigenous Adivasis. In spite of big defeats like Bihar and West Bengal, Modi has successfully established BJP governments in more than 15 states. If this pace continues, it would mean immense trouble for the party on all fronts… Senior comrades have proposed concrete steps to end Modi raj … and were thinking along the lines of another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident,” the purported letter reads.
“It sounds suicidal and there is a great chance that we might fail, but we feel that the party PB (Politbureau/central committee) must deliberate over our proposal. Targeting his roadshows could be an effective strategy. We collectively believe that survival of the party is supreme…,” Public Prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar quoted from the letter, maintaining the Politbureau of the banned group might have considered the proposal.
In Jammu, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the government was “always serious about the PM’s security” and that the Maoists were fighting a losing battle.