Rahul visit: DIA panicked after hearing harmless conversation

Harmless conversations that two J & K police constables had with their wives were on Monday intercepted by the Army's intelligence unit, which read a sinister plot and linked it to Rahul Gandhi's visit to the Valley.

The Defence Intelligence Unit set off a security alarm from New Delhi to Srinagar after eavesdropping on a conversation between a city cop and his wife. The constable was on Monday heard telling his wife that he would not be able to make it home because of the VVIP visit the same day.

After the telephone intercept, the DIA also sounded an alert to the elite Special Protection Group.

Another intercepted conversation between a head constable posted in Ashmuqam in South Kashmir and his wife also aroused the agency's suspicion. In this case, the constable was asking his wife to take a different route to the hospital as the road near Khanabal, where Gandhi along with chief minister Omar Abdullah were to address a poll rally, was blocked.

Both the constables were quizzed but nothing sinister was found. However, the anxiety meant that SPG director BV Wanchoo had to accompany the young Gandhi to Anantnag.

The DIA had pressed the panic button last year too when Congress president Sonia Gandhi was in town. At that time, it was a conversation between two employees who were working out plans to reach the secretariat because of heavy traffic restriction due to the VVIP visit.