Abhishek Banerjee’s house at Hazra, categorised as a “high-security zone” till May 4, was stripped of its additional security cover on Wednesday following a directive from the Kolkata Police headquarters.

A luggage scanner, a door-frame metal detector, scissors barricades and a CCTV camera unit installed outside the Trinamool Congress national general secretary's house at 188A, Harish Mukherjee Road were removed by the police early in the morning.

Amid rumours that Abhishek’s security cover has also been withdrawn, Bengal director-general of police Siddh Nath Gupta said both Abhishek and Mamata Banerjee were Z-plus protectees.

“Both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are Z-plus protectees. They will continue to get their security cover as per the guidelines of the yellow book. Apart from that, there were a few extra security arrangements — only those have been removed,” Gupta said on Wednesday.

The yellow book is the manual for security arrangements of high-value individuals.

The guardrails and the police kiosk outside Abhishek’s house have also been removed.

Kolkata Police had issued an internal memo on Tuesday to formally withdraw security arrangements from outside Abhishek’s office at 9, Camac Street, the Trinamool Congress headquarters at 121, Kalighat Road, and Abhishek’s home from 6.30am on Wednesday.

Sources said the additional security arrangements for mayor Firhad Hakim had also been withdrawn.