Shinde not fit for post, says R K Singh

Former Home Secretary R K Singh on Wednesday launched another attack on Sushilkumar Shinde, saying he was not fit to be the Union home minister, while the government sought to put the blame on the former bureaucrat for troubles in the trial of Italian marines.

Singh, who had levelled corruption allegations against the home minister two days ago, said Finance Minister P Chidambaram was “a 100 times better” than Shinde. He also alleged that Shinde has been “misleading the nation on Dawood by giving wrong information” and the FBI never said that they would help in nabbing Dawood.

However, his predecessor G K Pillai disapproved of the way in which the retired IAS officer made allegations, saying such criticism was not proper and it would increase ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, with Singh joining politics.

“There is no principle. Such things will happen more as we approach the elections. May be this is an attempt to put pressure. It was not proper. But he has joined politics. So, it is totally a different ball game now. This is a very complex situation,” he said.

Union Minister V Narayanasamy claimed that Singh made the allegations as he was “expecting some kind of position” in the government.

Calling Shinde a “man of impeccable integrity”, Narayanasamy said: “I could see he (the former home secretary) was expecting some kind of position in the government. 

“That is what Digvijay also said in his statement. Since it did not materialise, he is making a lot of bold allegations. The allegations are not borne by truth. It is very unfortunate.”

Referring to the former home secretary, he said it was not correct for people working in government positions, who have access to secret documents, to make allegations without any basis or proof. He said Singh was changing his version all the time.

Countering Singh, sources in the Home Ministry sought to blame him for the delay in the trial of the Italian marines, involved in the killing of two fishermen. They claimed that Singh did not deal with the issue in a proper manner.

They said the ministry was likely to deny sanction to prosecute the two marines under the law, which provides only death penalty. If it so happened, the case would be transferred from the NIA to the Kerala Police.

Sources said the ministry was mulling over two options, outright rejection of the NIA's plea for sanction to prosecute the marines under SUA or informing the court that the murder of the two Kerala fishermen could not be considered a scheduled offence.