VK Singh victimised' me, imposed illegal' ban, alleges Army chief Suhag
New Delhi: Indian Army chief, General Dalbir Singh Suhag, accused Union minister VK Singh of imposing ‘illegal’ ban under ‘false, baseless and imaginary’ allegations against him when the latter was serving as Army chief in 2012, the Indian Express reported.
In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Dalbir Singh said that in 2012 “I was sought to be victimised by the then COAS” General V K Singh “with the sole purpose of denying me promotion to the appointment of Army Commander”.
“False, baseless and imaginary allegations of lapses were levelled against me in the show cause notice” of May 19, 2012 and consequent imposition of an “illegal” discipline and vigilance (DV) ban, the Army chief stated in the affidavit, the report said.
The affidavit was filed in response to a petition which alleged favouritism while selecting Dalbir Singh as Army commander.
Singh had slapped a discipline and vigilance ban on Dalbir Singh between April and May 2012 for alleged “failure of command and control” in an operation in Assam’s Jorhat in 2011. However, the ban was lifted within two months by General Vikram Singh – who took over as the Army Chief after VK Singh retired. After the ban was revoked, Dalbir Singh was appointed as commander of the eastern command soon after.
“Directions for initiating administrative action against me… smacks of a motivated, biased, arbitrary and malicious intent to punish me which the then chief of army staff executed apparently as planned by him,” read Dalbir Singh’s affidavit. He further said that the government and the defence ministry were satisfied of the “gross injustice”.
Earlier in the 2012, VK Singh stirred a controversy when he moved the Supreme Court challenging government's orders which had determined his date of birth to be May 10, 1950 and not May 10, 1951, which would have given him an extra ten months in office. But his request was rejected by the apex court that held that the general had given an undertaking to the government to abide by his May 10, 1950 birth date.
