Gujarat: Pravin Togadia escapes unhurt as truck hits his SUV, alleges his Z-plus security is 'weakened deliberately'

Surat (Gujarat): Pravin Togadia, the International Working President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and a cancer surgeon by qualification today escaped unhurt after a truck hit his vehicle from behind near Kamrej in Surat district, police said. Togadia later claimed he could have been killed had his vehicle not been bullet-proof, and alleged that his Z-plus security was "weakened deliberately" by the Gujarat government. "A truck hit the vehicle carrying Togadia and another person, about a kilometre away from the Kamrej town, when he was on his way to Surat to attend a function. Togadia escaped unhurt and we have seized the truck and arrested its driver," Surat rural Superintendent of Police M K Nayak said, reported PTI. "Had the vehicle in which I was travelling not been bullet-proof, not a single person travelling in it could have survived," he added. Image: ABP News Bureau Togadia said that as per the Z-plus security protocol, he was earlier provided a pilot vehicle to move ahead of his car, an escort vehicle and an ambulance behind it, and a vehicle on one side. "This was the first time that while there was a police vehicle piloting our vehicle, no escort vehicle was provided behind our vehicle, as per directions from Gandhinagar," he alleged. "No information regarding this was given deliberately to the police. I would like to ask why this was so? In this situation, a truck hit my vehicle. After the truck hit our vehicle, it hit a divider. Despite that, the truck driver did not apply brakes," Togadia claimed. "My Z-plus security was weakened deliberately. If in such a situation my vehicle was hit and no brakes were applied, this is a matter of concern," he said. It may be recalled that in January, Pravin Togadia had said that there were "plans" to kill him  in an "encounter". He had addressed the media and said-"I am being targeted for a decade old case, there is an attempt to suppress my voice. Rajasthan Police team came to arrest me. Someone told me plan was being made to kill me in an encounter." VHP had claimed Pravin Togadia was "missing" since morning and later in the evening, he was traced in a state of unconsciousness at Ahmedabad’s Shahibaug. He was then admitted to Chandramani Hospital in Shahibaug. It was said that the VHP claimed Togadia (62) was detained by the Rajasthan Police in connection with a case, but the latter denied this. Local Sola police station officials had said a team of Rajasthan Police visited them to execute an arrest warrant against the Hindutva leader under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC in an old case, but could not find him at his residence. VHP workers had laid a siege to the Sola police station, shouted slogans, and blocked traffic on main Sarkehj- Gandhinagar highway demanding that the police immediately locate him. "Our International Working President Pravin Togadia is missing since 10 am today. The responsibility of his whereabouts and security lies with the administration," the VHP's Gujarat unit general secretary Ranchod Bharwad told reporters. VHP spokesperson Jay Shah, however, had claimed that Togadia was detained by the Rajasthan Police in an old case. "Our leader Pravin Togadia has been detained in an old case and was taken away by the Rajasthan Police from the VHP state headquarters in Paldi area of the city," he had claimed. (With PTI inputs)