Making CD in core area of airport major security breach: Congress

DEHRADUN: Congress today demanded action against those who made the sting CD of ousted Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat, saying "smuggling" videography and shooting equipment inside the hangar of an airport amounted to "major security breach".

Pradesh Congress President Kishore Upadhyay today wondered how the Centre "lost sight" of this aspect of the sting CD case and demanded action against those who made it for "playing with national security".

"Jollygrant and Pantnagar airports of Uttarakhand are strategically sensitive as they belong to a border state.

Taking videography and shooting equipment inside the hangar of any of these airports is a major security breach.

The security of airports falls under the jurisdiction of the Centre and the Airports Authority of India.

"I want to ask both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh how they lost sight of this major security breach by those who made the so-called sting CD," Upadhyay told reporters here.

Demanding that a case be lodged against those involved in making the CD for "playing with national security" by taking the equipment inside the core area of an airport, Upadhyay said this is one aspect of the case which was "totally ignored" by the Centre.

The sting CD made by the editor-in-chief of a private news channel and circulated by the nine Congress rebels who created a political crisis in Uttarakhand by siding with opposition BJP in the state Assembly, purportedly shows Rawat negotiating a money deal with the journalist to buy back the support of MLAs who had revolted against him.

Rawat, who had all along been saying that the video was fake, recently accepted his presence in it by saying "there was nothing wrong in meeting a journalist".

He had even said that he was ready to be hanged publicly if there is any evidence in the CD proving that he made an offer in cash or kind to buy the support of any legislator.