Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra [ Images ], who called on President Pratibha Patil [ Images ] along with his father Dr A S Bindra and mother Babli on Thursday morning, denied reports that his gun was tampered with before the final of the 10 metres Air Rifle event at the Beijing [ Images ] Olympics [ Images ].

"No, it is not true at all. I am not aware of any such thing," he said.

"As I said, everything went off well; hence, there is no need to comment on everything about which I am not sure of. Why bother?"

• Our son Abhinav | Abhinav triumphant

Abhinav, who scored a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the 10 metres air rifle event on Monday to earn India [ Images ] its first individual Olympic gold medal, returned from Beijing in the wee hours of Thursday morning to a hero's welcome and hours later met with the President.

"My meeting with President was good. She was very kind and gracious. She blessed me and hoped that I would do well in future as well," said Abhinav, in reply to a question from rediff.com about the meeting in the forecourt of the President's residence.

"I am happy to be back in India and I will be heading for Chandigarh shortly," he added

To another question he shot back: "Some people asked me if I believed that I could do it [win gold]. My answer is that I always believed that I could do it."

Abhinav's mother said she had no time to cook anything special for her son. "Once he is back to Chandigarh I will cook his favourite dishes. He has a series of meetings. He is meeting the vice-president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi [ Images ] and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [ Images ], and had just an omlette and bread in the morning," she added.

A S Bindra thanked the media for supporting Abhinav and the family and invited them to join the press conference at Kamal Mahal in Maurya Hotel at 1400 IST.

Photograph: India's gold medallist Abhinav Bindra meets Indian President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi [ Images ] on Thursday/PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images