Rahul 'laser' incident: Mystery shrouds Congress's 'complaint letter' to MHA

NEW DELHI: In a curious turn to the laser light incident involving Rahul Gandhi, the Congress on Thursday said it did not write any letter to home minister Rajnath Singh on alleged security breach.

As the news broke about the alleged security threat to Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Amethi on Wednesday, reports cited a letter purportedly written to Rajnath Singh by three Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Singh Surjewala.

The letter, dated April 10 and marked confidential, said "a laser was pointed at Rahul's head intermittently on 7 separate occasions in a short period" and urged the government "to immediately take note of this grave and unacceptable security threat."

However, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala claimed that the party had not written any letter pertaining to alleged security breach to home minister Rajnath Singh.

Home ministry spokesperson also corroborated his statement and said, "MHA has not received any letter from the Congress party."

When asked about the letter at the AICC briefing, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said there is no letter, there is no complaint.

"Let me make it very clear that the obligation of security, especially, during election time and in particular for a SPG protectee is squarely on the SPG, on the security forces and ultimately in some sense on the MHA. I have no doubt that they are aware of their responsibility to discharge their duties as the ultimate protector, just like they would discharge of every other SPG protectee, be it the head of the Congress party or the Prime Minister of this country or any other head of any other party, who has SPG protection," he told reporters.

Asked about the purported letter of the Congress and whether the party would file a complaint, Singhvi said, "Why should I file a complaint when neither I nor the MHA is taking cognisance (of the letter).