Ahmedabad Khandwawala says his letters were used selectively to create confusion Within hours of the state unit of the Congress attacking the Narendra Modi government for failing to provide security for the IPL matches in Ahmedabad, which became the ground for shifting the series outside country, Director General of Police S S Khandwawala issued a clarification. He said an unnecessary controversy had been created by certain quarters over his response to the security demand for IPL matches in Ahmedabad.

He said his letter of March 17 had been “misused” by interested groups to create confusion, but his May 19 letter had not been made public by the same groups.

He said in his letter dated May 19 to the Gujarat Cricket Association, he had made it very clear that there was no problem in providing security for the IPL matches on April 11 and 13, and on May 6, 9, 10 and 13. However, there was some problem regarding the April 17 match.

“I had only asked GCA to advance the April 17 match to April 15 or postpone it to May 3 owing to the Lok Sabha elections,” he told Newsline, adding that the police required at least 15 days to prepare the security arrangements for the polls.

The Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat are scheduled on April 30.

“We always have a right to ask for change of dates if there is some emergency,” he said.

He, however, said there was no need to shift the IPL matches outside the country. “The Gujarat Police is ready to provide security to the IPL matches,” he said.

In his March 17 letter, the DGP had asked the GCA to shift the dates either before April 10 or after May 3, which apparently became the ground for shifting the matches outside the country. The Congress had used this letter to hit Modi who had assailed the UPA government for not being able to provide enough security for IPL matches. 

SOurce: expressindia