Decorated army officer accuses former chiefs of victimising him

Gen Dalbir and Lt Gen Krishna didn’t respond to HT’s phone calls or messages. General Bikram said he didn’t remember the case. “It is not right for me to comment also, as it’s more than three years that I have retired,” he told HT on Saturday.

Shekhwat, who is on a study leave and pursuing research at Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, declined comment.

Such complaints usually take six to seven months to be processed, army sources said, refusing further comments. The complaint was made in April.

Shekhawat’s allegations have brought the focus back on the operation that led to an all-out war among India’s top army officers and at one point even threatened to derail the force’s succession plan.

On the night of December 20, 2011, an army intelligence unit barged into the house of Jorhatbased businessman Surjit Gogoi on the suspicion he was working with the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom.

Gogoi, a contractor with the military engineering corps, was not home when the intelligence unit of the 3 Corps, which was based in neighbouring Nagland’s Dimapur, raided his home in the presence of his wife and other family members.

The soldiers allegedly took away cash, gold and mobile phones from his home, inviting allegations the raid was nothing but a robbery.

Gogoi lodged a complaint that lead to a police investigation.

His 21 para (SF) unit was based in Jorhat at that time but in a breach of procedure, the intelligence unit didn’t inform his unit or local police about the operation, Shekhawat’s letter says.

He brought the incident to the notice of his superiors but they denied the army was involved.

He spoke to the then brigadier, general staff, Abhay Krishna who “denied any involvement and asked me as to how do (did) I know that 3 CISU (the Intelligence Unit ) had done such a thing? I was shocked by the reaction”.

The intelligence unit was under Krishna’s command. Bikram Singh was the eastern army commander and Dalbir Singh the 3 Corps commander.

Krishna took charge of the southwestern command this January.

The raid caused an uproar and the then army chief Gen VK Singh, who is now a minister at the Centre, issued a showcause notice to Dalbir Singh, who was in

CONTINUED ON P 5

I am forced, with distress and disillusionment, to state that despite being highest decorated serving officer in the army with an unblemished operational profile, I have been systematically victimised by officers at the highest level