DEHRADUN: The Gupta brothers who are frequent visitors to Uttarakhand were upgraded to ‘Z’ category security in June last year and a government order was also issued to this effect. The Guptas were a Y-category protectee earlier when the Congress government was in power.However, the reasons why their security was enhanced and the kind of threat faced by the family were not made immediately clear. When queried about the matter, Anand Vardhan , principal secretary (home) said that the security cover “is being paid for by the Guptas and was extended after a threat perception analysis of the South Africa-based family by the state government.”Dehradun SSP Nivedita Kukreti added that a decision on giving Z grade security to a person is “taken by the state government on the basis of a report prepared by the home department.”Currently, governor K K Paul and CM Trivendra Singh Rawat have Z-plus security in the state. Judges of the high court and yoga guru Ramdev are among the prominent persons to get Z category security in the state. In Ramdev’s case, his Z category status was extended throughout the country by the Modi government in November 2014 as a result of which he gets pan-India protection by CRPF personnel.Meanwhile, sources said that with the Guptas featuring in the controversy in South Africa regarding their business dealings, the state government may soon review their security cover.

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