Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar writes to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, expressing pain over dragging the Army into a controversy.

'I have been deeply pained by your allegations as reported in the media. If only you had enquired with the concerned agencies of the state government, you would have come to know of the extensive correspondence between the army and the state agencies, including the joint inspection of sites carried out by them,' the defence minister wrote.

Last week, the CM objected to the presence of army personnel at toll plazas in the state, asking was it an 'army coup'. She alleged that the armed forces didn't take necessary permission from the state authorities to conduct such an exercise.

The army had later released its correspondence with the WB police to reject the charges.

'Your allegations in this regard run the risk of adversely impacting the morale of the country's armed forces,' Parrikar wrote in his letter to WB CM.

Political parties and the politicians mat have the luxury of making wild and unsubstantiated allegations against each other but one needs to be extremely careful while referring to our armed forces, Parrikar wrote.