New Delhi: Then president A.P.J Abdul Kalam lost his customary cool when a soldier of the President's Bodyguard allegedly raped a girl at the Buddha Jayanti park here five years ago.

"Kalam, normally so composed, was more angry that I had ever seen him, tearing at his hair that in any case was so handy and ringing me up to know what had happened," writes P.M. Nair, his then secretary, in his book "The Kalam Effect" (HarperCollins).

Once the newspapers came out with headlines screaming rape by the Rashtrapati Bhavan staff, Nair says, Kalam turned furious.

"For once the voice (Kalam's) was not cool at all. He was screaming. I told him that I will check and tell him what exactly had happened," wrote Nair.

"I told the president that it was an individual's aberration and that he should not lose any sleep over it, but I knew he would."

The alleged rape - involving four men, not one as mentioned in the book - took place in October 2003. Four men were arrested for the crime.