Former Army Chief Gen VK Singh on Thursday created piquant situation for the members of the Privilege Committee of the J&K legislative Council by not turning up before them to clarify his position over the controversial allegations of pay-off to State politicians.
After waiting for reasonably one-and-half hour the members of the Privilege Committee in consultation with legal experts, which included State law Secretary and Advocate-General, decided to issue fresh summons to him through the Director-General of Police, Haryana to appear before the committee in person on January 22, 2014.
According to DS Rana, member of the Privilege Committee, “The Committee, under the chairmanship of Jugal Kishore Sharma, has decided to issue summons to him (Singh) through the Haryana Director-General of Police to appear before this Committee on 22nd of this month at 2:30pm.”
Rana said, “failing this, necessary action under law which is available to us will be taken against him.” Col U B Singh, a friend of Gen Singh who was present in the civil secretariat complex to meet Gen Singh told reporters, “Singh had sent a proper reply to the Privilege Committee. But they have not taken it into consideration and refused to accept it.”
When Rana was asked about this, he said “There is no reply we have received as yet.” On December 9, last year, Privileges Committee had asked Singh to appear in person before it on January 9 to explain his position on his controversial remarks.
The privilege motion against Gen Singh was moved by MlCs Ajay Sadhotra, Rana and Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy in the last session of the Council, taking cognisance of his allegations during a TV interview in which he had claimed that Army was paying money to politicians in Jammu and Kashmir.Meanwhile, in response to a similar notice issued by the speaker of the state assembly former Army Chief had submitted his written reply along with CD clarifying his position on the controversial remarks. The speaker had circulated his response to the members of the house committee for their feedback before taking a final call.