New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS): A couple in their 30s stripped in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan Monday after they were denied entry to the president's house, police said.

The couple - identified as Prabhat and Anuradha - went to the main gate of Rashtrapati Bhavan and demanded a meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee.

When security personnel asked for the reason, they failed to say why.

"The couple then took off their clothes," a police officer told IANS.

The stunned security personnel hurriedly made the couple wear some clothes, but the man again took off the dhoti he was made to wear and started running down Raisina Hill in the buff, with policemen in hot pursuit.

The man was overtaken by a police jeep and forcibly put inside. The couple was taken to the Parliament Street police station.

Police said they failed to tell the exact reason for their protest.

The two were not behaving normally and were taken to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital for a medical checkup, a police officer said.

They were also taken before a sub-divisional magistrate and later admitted to the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences in east Delhi, the officer added.

The police were trying find out the antecedents of the couple.