Last week, a 35-year-old woman got into the new secretariat building of Gujarat with a long knife in her purse. In a major security breach at the Rs. 150 crore Swarnim Sankul, the woman was able to walk up to the second security barrier.

Zuvera Usman Hafiz, a resident of Surat, got past the first cordon of the high security zone without being detected. Alarm bells began ringing when Hafiz passed through the metal detector at the second security cordon. The guards there detained Hafiz as she did not have the security pass and because she could not give satisfactory answers to their queries. When the woman’s belongings were checked, the policemen found the knife hidden in her handbag.

“The woman was not cooperative in the initial rounds of questioning. She refuses to say why she had come to the secretariat. She carried a knife and had eluded security officials. The woman has revealed she bought the knife in Bharuch. That apart, she has not been forthcoming in her replies,” said a police official.