The Centre has ordered a probe by the Intelligence Bureau to verify claims by the Army's Technical Support Division (TSD) that it carried out a number of successful secret operations in foreign countries during former Army chief VK Singh's tenure.
The move comes amid allegations that the TSD tried to subvert the civilian Government in insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir by funding certain politicians there.
Singh has denied the charge and claimed that funding of politicians in Jammu and Kashmir was a routine affair and that it is done by the Army as part of the stabilization efforts in the trouble-torn State.
Following the controversy after details of the enquiry report of Director-General of Military Operations lieutenant-General Vinod Bhatia on TSD's functioning surfaced in the media and the political row after Singh's statement last month, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon held a high-level meeting on September 24 with Defence Secretary and Union Home Secretary and ordered a probe by the IB to look into the claims.
The officials were against handing over the probe to an investigative agency like the CBI as it could have spilled the beans on covert operations, top Intelligence sources said.
Setting one agency after the other has become a trademark of the UPA Government as the CBI is already targeting IB officials in a number of alleged fake encounters in Gujarat and unbundling secrets of covert operations against terror groups in public domain.
Now, the IB has been put after the TSD, another secretive agency that is said to have carried out secret operations in certain foreign countries in national interest. In a country like India where no secret report remains “secret” for long, the finding of such a probe could give a long handle to Pakistan to embarrass India.
The IB has been tasked to probe if operations such as claimed by the TSD were actually carried out or were just an eyewash.
The IB will also look into the claims made by DGMI including funding of Jammu and Kashmir politicians by the secretive military Intelligence unit to topple the State Government; funding of certain NGOs; procurement of interception equipment worth Rs 8 crore and alleged misuse of these interceptors by TSD in the national Capital by conducting unauthorised snooping on top bureaucrats and politicians, the sources said.
In its report submitted in March this year, Bhatia had sought an independent probe into the irregularities in the functioning of the TSD by an agency like the CBI. The probe by DGMI into the functioning of the TSD was instituted after the new Army chief took over following retirement of Singh.
During its existence for nearly 30 months, the TSD spent an estimated Rs 50 crore for procurement of equipment, covert operations and civic action programmes. At present, the TSD stands virtually disbanded.