Security breach at Rashtrapati Bhavan?

A crank call at the Rashtrapati Bhavan sends security agencies into a tizzy. The reason-the call was purportedly made from Sonia Gandhi's office

A crank call at the Rashtrapati Bhavan sends security agencies into a tizzy. The reason-the call was purportedly made from Sonia Gandhi's office

At exactly 11 am on March 28, a hotline number at the Rashtrapati Bhavan started ringing. When the President's private secretary picked up the phone, the person at the other end claimed that he was calling from Congress president Sonia Gandhi's office.


Calling prez The crank call to the Rashtrapati Bhavan was made by a
person who claimed to be from Congress president Sonia Gandhi's office File pic

The caller veered between Hindi and English and told the private secretary that Sonia had an appointment with Pratibha Patil and needed to meet her urgently. On checking the engagement details, the officials at the President's house realised that there was no such appointment.

The private secretary then went back to the telephone. However, the line had got disconnected. A complaint was filed by the President's office and submitted to the deputy commissioner of police (Rashtrapati Bhavan).

Apparently, the caller had identified himself as Shailendra. But preliminary investigations revealed that there was no one by that name at the Congress president's office. So, there was something wrong with the phone call. Sensing the importance of the case, the matter was immediately transferred to the Special Cell of Delhi Police.

Who's calling?

A hotline (also called an automatic signalling service, ringdown, or off-hook service) is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the pre-selected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook.

When contacted by MiD DAY, sources in the Special Cell said that they had received a complaint forwarded by the DCP of Rashtrapati Bhavan and were looking into the sensitive matter. "It could be a prank or a serious security breach. One cannot indulge in such activities with the office of the President. We have got the phone number from which the call was made. It was a landline number and we are verifying it," a source said.

However, a senior Special Cell officer said on condition of anonymity, "Last week we had received this case. We can't reveal anymore details, but it seems the matter is not related to terror."