New Delhi, Sep 24 (UNI) The government on Monday dismissed Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s charge regarding former Director of SPG Vivek Srivastava's resignation as “baseless”, devoid of fact and unfortunate.

On September 22, Mr Gandhi had said, “The SPG Chief appointed by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had to quit because he refused to accept a list of SPG officers handpicked by the RSS”.

The matter has been verified. The officer in question former Director of Special Protection Group (SPG) Vivek Srivastava has specifically averred that he did not have any such conversation with Rahul Gandhi at any point of time, the home ministry said.

The officer has stated that as part of his professional duties he interacted with SPG protectees; however, he has categorically stated that during his interaction with Mr Gandhi, there was no talk whatsoever regarding the appointment of a new Director, or the reasons for his leaving SPG, it added.

SPG is a professional organisation which takes its task of protecting serving Prime Ministers, former Prime Ministers and their families entrusted to its security, very seriously and in the highest professional spirit, the ministry said.

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