The Congress party has written to the Union Home ministry claiming threat to party president Rahul Gandhi’s life after a green-bluish laser light was flashed on Mr. Gandhi when he was addressing the media at Amethi. The Congress chief was in Amethi on Wednesday to file his nominations for the Lok Sabha polls.
Senior Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh signed the letter that read, a laser was pointed at his head, which could have come from a sniper rifle. The party also enclosed a security video that shows a spot of green light on Mr. Gandhi.
It went on to say that there were seven instances when the light was pointed in short intervals, security personnel at the spot too confirmed possibility use of a sniper rifle.
The home ministry asked the director of Rahul Gandhi’s protection in-charge, the SPG to verify the claims of the green light. The ministry later responded that the light came from a mobile phone used by the Congress party’s photographer.
In April last year, the Congress party again claimed that there was a threat to the party president’s life, when an aircraft Mr. Gandhi took reported multiple faults. After a probe the aviation regulator, DGCA, concluded that the chartered flight indeed experienced steep fall in altitude, when the autopilot function failed. It took 24 seconds for the pilot to steer the flight under control.