No bid to topple Jammu and Kashmir government: V.K. Singh

Former army chief Gen. (retd) V.K. Singh Tuesday denied any attempt was made to topple the Jammu and Kashmir government, and said the money was given by the intelligence unit for operations to attract youth in the state to constructive work.

Media reports quoting an army inquiry said the former army chief set up a secret intelligence unit Technical Support Division (TSD), which misused its funds in an attempt to topple the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Reacting to the reports, the former army chief said money given to politicians was not for personal or political use, but for programmes to engage youth in constructive work.

"That money was not for their personal work, or political work. If someone thinks bribe was paid, it is totally wrong... These things cannot be done in uniform, so intelligence unit did that," he said.

The former army chief also said that leaked media reports were an act of "treason", and demanded a thorough inquiry into it.

"If intelligence issue are being discussed in public, it is treason. You are telling the enemy what your intelligence is doing. It must be probed how the report was leaked and action should be taken against those who leaked it to malign a few people without thinking how much it will hurt the nation," he said at a press conference here.

He also said incidents along the Pakistan and China borders would not have happened if the TSD, operational during his tenure, was not disbanded.

"Today, whatever incidents are happening on the border, those would not have happened if the unit was not disbanded," V.K. Singh said.

He, however, did not elaborate "on the incidents".

Sources said the present army chief, General Bikram Singh, began the process to shut down TSD after assuming office in May last year.

The reports in a newspaper had also said V.K. Singh paid off a non-governmental organisation to file a court case and try to change the line of succession in the army top brass, and also conducted unauthorised covert operations.

V.K. Singh denied the allegation.