"Hello, traffic control calling, Charlie mai Raj Bhavan jayenge, Vidhan Sabha nahi."
The sudden change in the route of the VIP sent the top officers of the Patna police into a tizzy. They immediately rushed to the Raj Bhavan gate from the Assembly, where chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was scheduled to arrive at 10.30am to seek the vote of confidence on Friday.
At 10am, a message flashed from the traffic control room, alerting the cops that Charlie mai would go to Raj Bhavan and not the Assembly as was told earlier. Everything went haywire as no one had expected such a move. Tight security arrangements had been made on the 1.5-km and odd stretch from the Assembly to 1 Aney Marg, the official residence of the chief minister.
In police parlance, Charlie mai refers to the Bihar chief minister. Till 9.45am, everything was going as per schedule. The cops manning the traffic control room were heard repeatedly asking their counterparts deployed en route from the chief minister's house to the Assembly to get ready as the VIP was to leave for his destination soon. The scheduled route, however, was changed within 15 minutes, leaving the cops wondering.
As soon as the chief minister's cavalcade turned to Raj Bhavan around 10.03am, the men-in-uniform started relaxing and kept waiting outside till Manjhi returned. There was unprecedented security arrangement near 1 Aney Marg. For the first time, highly trained commandos of the special task force had been deployed outside the CM's residence, located a stone's throw from Raj Bhavan.
"While Special Branch personnel maintain internal security at the CM's house, Patna police looks after the outer layer. Members of the state security guards trained on the lines of the National Security Guards have been assigned to guard the sprawling bungalow. District police officials never interfere with the internal security at 1 Aney Marg," said a senior IPS officer.
On the D-Day, around 2,000 policemen and 30 magistrates were drafted for the security at the Assembly and outside the chief minister's residence. While city superintendent of police (SP) (central) Chandan Kushwaha and deputy superintendent of police (Secretariat) Shibli Numani were deployed on the northern side of the CM's residence, senior SP Jitendra Rana was present at the Assembly to oversee the security arrangements there.
SSP Rana said the entire city was put on high alert.
Women cops in large numbers were deployed at the Assembly. Quick response teams were also kept ready at the Secretariat police station under whose jurisdiction the area falls. The area that houses the Assembly and the official residences of the ministers, MLAs and MLCs besides some top bureaucrats had virtually been turned into a fortress.
