Allegations motivated, absurd, says former army chief

NEW DELHI: A day after the government said it was examining an army report on the alleged misuse of a secret military intelligence unit during the term of General VK Singh (retd), the former army chief rubbished the allegations calling the report “motivated” and “laughable.”

He said the technical services division (TSD) was set up after the 26/11 Mumbai strikes “because of the requirements of the defence minister.”

An internal army probe had reportedly found that the now 2010 — had misused secret funds to destabilise the Omar Abdullah government in J&K sucking the blood out of the army. The task was to ensure the security of the border. I would welcome a white paper on this,” adding that he was being targeted.

The BJP had on Friday questioned the timing of the report coming out in the public domain, linking it to General Singh having shared stage with its PM candidate Narendra Modi at a rally in Haryana on Sunday.

HT was the first to report on January 17, 2013 that an army probe, headed by director general of military opera Bhatia, had recommended immediate disbanding of the unit as it had misused funds on unauthorised activities including diverting money to compromise General Bikram Singh’s chances of taking over as chief. General Bikram Singh had constituted a board of offic ers in August 2012 to probe the TSD’S mandate, tasks executed by it and scrutinise its financial records.

The unit had faced allegations of listening in to mobile phone conversations of politicians and bureaucrats at a time when VK