NEW DELHI: Former Army chief General V K Singh could be probed for allegedly trying to topple the government in Jammu and Kashmir and also for financial misappropriations, media reports said Friday.
A report by The Indian Express on Friday claimed that Singh set up a special unit in the Army which tried to topple the Jammu and Kashmir government.
Misusing secret service funds to destabilise Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s government in Jammu and Kashmir, paying off an NGO to try change the line of succession in the Army top brass, buying off-air interception equipment, to conduct “unauthorised” covert operations, are among some of the charges against Singh, the daily reported.
The string of alleged irregularities were allegedly conducted by the Technical Services Division (TSD), a controversial Military Intelligence (MI) unit set up by former Singh in May 2010.
The charges and a call for probe by an agency such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are part of a report by a secret Board of Officers inquiry report into the functioning of the TSD, led by Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia, DG, Military Operations, the Express said.
Funds were withdrawn from the army’s secret service accounts with the State Bank of India match payments claimed by the intelligence unit officials for many covert deals, the Army’s report said.
According to report: Rs 1.19 crore were given to Ghulam Hassan Mir, presently J&K Agriculture Minister, to engineer a change of guard in Kashmir. Mir has called the charge baseless.
Rs 2.38 crore was given to one Hakikat Singh on orders from Army Headquarters. Hakikat Singh set up an NGO named “Jammu and Kashmir Humanitarian Service Organisation (JKHSO),” which was linked to “Yes Kashmir,” another NGO which filed a PIL against then Army Commander Bikram Singh (who is now the Army Chief) in the alleged fake encounter case in Jangalat Mandi when Bikram Singh was a Brigadier. That PIL, which was later dismissed, was widely seen as an attempt to scuttle Bikram Singh’s appointment and change the line of succession in the top brass.
Rs 8 crore was spent on purchase of interception equipment from a Singapore-based company in November 2010 ostensibly meant to be deployed in the J&K 15 Corps. In March 2012, following orders of the then DG, MI, Lt Gen D S Thakur, the equipment was physically destroyed following publication of a media report on the illegal use of this equipment in New Delhi.
Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said that the report was submitted to the then Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma around March this and a summary of which has reached the desks of the Defence Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office.
Reacting to the reports, General VK Singh was quoted as saying: “This is simple vendetta as some people are not comfortable with me sharing the dais with Narendra Modi to espouse the cause of ex-servicemen in the country.”
He said if anyone has recommended a probe into the functioning of the unit, then that person is “talking through his hat” as its operations were meant to be secret.
Predictably, a slugfest started between the Congress and the BJP on the issue, with the main opposition terming it political vendetta and the Congress denying it.
The Left chose not to link the report and the politics over it.
Senior BJP leader Balbir Punj said Singh was being punished for his links with the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
“Singh is being punished for speaking against the Congress government and for his links with Modi,” said Punj.
The Congress denied the BJP’s charge.
“He has not been arrested, nothing has happened, only Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia has submitted a report, and said there should be a probe by an agency like Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The government has not decided anything nor taken any steps,” Congress leader Rashid Alvi said.
“It is not possible that if a person belongs to the opposition party or has ties with a leader who has been declared as the prime ministerial candidate, action should not be taken against him. Law will take its own course,” he said.
Govt examining report on use of secret funds
The defence ministry meanwhile said it was examining a report it had received from the Indian Army on the functioning of one of its units that was receiving secret funds but that no decision had been taken on a CBI probe into the issue.
“The government has received a report from the Army HQ on certain issues relating to one of its outfits as reported by a section of the media today,” a defence ministry statement said..
“The report impinges on matters of national security and, as such, the government will take a decision and further actions after a careful examination of the report.” the statement said, adding: “The government has in place measures to prevent any such undesirable activities.”
The statement also clarified that the ministry “has not taken any decision for a CBI inquiry into the issues raised in the armys report”.
The media report was based on a inquiry by a board of officers into the functioning of the Technical Services Division (TSD) of the Corps of Military Intelligence during the tenure of General V.K. Singh as the Indian Army chief. Agencies
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