Vehicles bought under Nirbhaya Fund diverted for security to Shinde faction

Some of the vehicles procured by the Mumbai Police earlier this year under the Nirbhaya Fund to fight crime against women are currently being used for providing Y-plus security to the MLAs and MPs of the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, a police official said on Sunday.

In June this year, the city police force had procured 220 Boleros, 35 Ertigas, 313 Pulsar motorcycle and 200 Activa two-wheelers using the Rs 30 crore corpus that it had received under the Nirbhaya fund.

The development prompted the opposition Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to attack the Shinde-led government, as they asked if the security of the ruling legislators was more important than protecting women.

The Nirbhaya Fund is being given to the state governments by the Centre since 2013 to implement schemes related to women's safety.

"After the vehicles were procured in June, they were distributed to all 97 police stations, cyber, traffic and coastal police units