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Naval security for Navy chief

The Navy has flown in a special batch of security personnel from Bombay to secure Admiral Sushil Kumar's residence, where an early morning exchange of fire took place between his security personnel and an armed intruder. A board of inquiry has been ordered.

Naval sources denied that the firing, in which a marine commando was injured, was the result of an altercation between two naval security men.

The Delhi police led by commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma and senior officials of the Navy and Intelligence Bureau combed the area and reviewed security in the compound, which will host the President and prime minister on Monday, as part of Navy Day celebrations. The naval chief hosts a dinner for the President, prime minister, defence minister and a host of dignitaries.

The 12 Rajaji Marg residence of Admiral Sushil Kumar was blanketed by Army men in the morning, who were replaced by the naval security men flown in from Bombay in the evening. The inner security of the naval chief's residence is handled by marine commandos and naval security personnel.

A senior naval officer said, "It is ridiculous to say that men on duty at the chief's residence had an altercation." He discounted the theory that the firing could have been the result of an altercation between two men on duty. The Navy has ordered an inquiry, to be headed by a captain from the Naval Intelligence, to investigate the incident.

According to sources, the intruder broke into the admiral's residence from the nearby compound, which houses the residences of minister Mridula Sinha and parliamentarian Kamal Kant Jaswal. The intruder apparently went past the high fencing surrounding Navy House through the kitchen side when the chief and his family were in.

A marine commando and the intruder exchanged fire, but the latter escaped after injuring the commando.

Just behind the residence of the naval chief is a dhobi ghat and a civilian market, besides shanties. Sources say that the Navy had expressed unhappiness over their presence. Intelligence Bureau sources said they had issued warnings to the Navy about a year back to tighten security. "We have repeated our warnings at regular intervals," the sources said.

But a senior naval official pointed out that these warnings have been "of general nature".

Among the possibilities being discussed in naval and intelligence circles is an attempt by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Navy has increased co-operation with its Sri Lankan counterparts over the last few months ever since LTTE fighting intensified in Jaffna and its surroundings. India has sold two offshore patrol vessels to Sri Lanka too.

Besides, the Navy is keeping a watch for gun-runners in the Andaman seas, a transit route for terrorists, ranging from Burmese rebels to Indian insurgents of the north-east.

EARLIER REPORT
Alert naval guards repulse intruder

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