Former Army Chief General VK Singh with Narendra Modi at a rally on September 15
The army's former chief General VK Singh misused military intelligence funds partly to bribe a minister to topple the government of Omar Abdullah in Jammu and Kashmir, says a report in the Indian Express today.
Here is your 10-point cheat-sheet to this big story:
The newspaper lists these as the conclusions of an inquiry conducted by the army; the report has allegedly been given to the Defence Ministry.
In an interview to NDTV a fortnight ago, General Singh had refuted these allegations, attributing them to a political conspiracy. He has not yet joined the BJP, but shared the stage at a rally in Rewari in Haryana with the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi.
"They can't find anything against me, or somebody has fed them information against them. It is all vested interests," the former chief said to NDTV a fortnight ago.
"The allegations sound spurious because of the timing and content," said BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman.
But Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's party disagrees. " The army has been resorting to such tactics for a long time... whatever happened, VK Singh is not the one who is solely responsible for this, there would be other people from the army involved, there would be a big section among the central government, the central would have played a role," said party leader Mustafa Kamal.
The Indian Express claims that the testimony against General Singh in the army's inquiry includes statements that a minister in Kashmir had been paid Rs 1.19 crores to topple the state government; the minister, Ghulam Hassan Mir, has denied the charges.
VK Singh retired as army chief in May 2012 after a tenure that was studded with clashes with the government.
He set up a military intelligence unit with 30 members that was accused of spying on the Defence Ministry.
He took the government to court in 2010 in a failed attempt to prove he was a year younger than army records showed. If he had won, he would have been eligible for an extra year in office. An explosive letter from him to the Prime Minister warning of mega deficiencies in arms and ammunition was leaked.
General Singh also suggested that Defence Minister AK Antony showed no interest in ordering an inquiry after General Singh told him that he had been offered a 14-crore bribe to clear a deal for army trucks.
Post a comment