J-K upper house summons Gen VK Singh
Former Army Chief called to explain his claim that Army paid bribes to politicians in J&K.
Jammu: The upper house of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has summoned former Army Chief Gen V K Singh to appear in person before its privileges committee on January 9 to explain his allegations that Army had paid bribes to politicians in the state.
The decision was taken at a Privilege's Committee meeting which met here under the chairmanship of Jugal Kishore Sharma, an official statement said. The summoning is besides a breach of privilege pending against Gen Singh with Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Mubarak Gul who issued a notice on October 24 asking him to explain his position on allegation of pay-offs to some ministers from the army's secret funds during his tenure.
The notice was issued in response to a privilege motion moved against former Army chief by 15 ministers and MLAs, including those of National Conference. Gen Singh had since submitted his reply along with a CD and a final decision was awaited on that.
A separate privilege motion had been moved in the Legislative Council, upper house of the assembly, by MLCs Ajay Sadhotra, Devender Singh Rana and Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy of National Conference.
The same motion was taken up today by the Committee which was attended by Rana, Ravinder Kumar Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Monga, Ali Mohammad Dar and Showkat Hussain Ganai after which the decision was taken to summon "the former Army Chief to appear in person on January nine, 2014".
The privilege motion against Gen Singh was moved in the last session of the Council after it took cognisance of his allegations during a TV interview in which he had claimed that army was paying money to politicians in Jammu and Kashmir.