Misusing
secret service funds to destabilise the Omar Abdullah government in
Jammu and Kashmir, to pay off an NGO to try change the line of
succession in the Army top brass, to buy off-air interception equipment,
to conduct "unauthorised" covert operations — a string of alleged
irregularities by the Technical Services Division (TSD), a controversial
Military Intelligence (MI) unit set up by former Army Chief General V K
Singh in May 2010, should come under the scanner of an external agency
like the CBI.
This
is a key recommendation of a secret Board of Officers inquiry report
into the functioning of the TSD. The inquiry was led by Lieutenant
General Vinod Bhatia, DG, Military Operations.
The
report, which includes original Army documents and notings, was
submitted to the then Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma around March
this year. It has rattled the security establishment and prompted a
series of measures to curtail MI's powers, tighten monitoring of its
covert operations and its use of secret service (SS) funds.
Government
and Army sources have confirmed to The Indian Express that a summary of
the report has been put up by the Ministry of Defence to Minister A K
Antony who is understood to have instructed that its contents be brought
to the notice of the Prime Minister's Office. The report has been
examined, sources said, at the "highest levels" in the MoD and the PMO.
The
Indian Express has learnt that the report cites testimonies of
officials on money taken from SS funds for operational expenses by the
TSD at the expense of other commands and field units. These claims
include:
*
Rs 1.19 crore given to Ghulam Hassan Mir, presently Agriculture
Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, to engineer a change of Governmrnt in
Jammu and Kashmir. When contacted by The Indian Express, Mir 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.
Incidentally, this happened days after a report in The Indian Express on
the illegal use of this equipment in New Delhi.
*
Frequent foreign travel by TSD officials to places like London and
Dubai using their personal and not official passports and of specific
TSD officials "doctoring'' documents to tarnish Army officers.