V K Singh to access report through RTI

Former Army Chief Gen V K Singh plans to file a Right to Information (RTI) petition to access an Army internal report which scrutinised the activities of a covert military unit that reported to Singh directly when he was the Army chief.

Singh is interested in a Board of Officer’s report that delved into the functioning of the Technical Support Division, a military intelligence unit that reported to Gen Singh.

The board was headed by Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia, the director general of military operations.
The decision to set up the TSD was taken when Gen Deepak Kapoor was the Army chief, but it fructified when Gen Singh took over.

But there are now allegations that Singh misused the TSD and its budget for furthering his personal interest. “The only way to establish the truth regarding this report and regarding the activities which are being questioned now is to see the copy of the report.
So we are planning to move an RTI application on Monday asking for a copy of that report submitted by Lt Gen Bhatia and also inspection of the records,” Gen Singh’s counsel Vishwajeet Singh said on Sunday.

Lt Gen Bhatia submitted his report to the Army chief on March 2013.

The Army chief is understood to have shared the contents of the report with Defence Minister A K Antony.

After almost six months, a section of that report has been leaked out to the media claiming that the board had recommended investigation into TSD by an external agency like the CBI.