Ex-Army Chief slams winding up of secret snooping unit TSD

NEW DELHI: Former Army Chief Gen V K Singh, who has courted controversy over secret military intelligence unit Technical Support Division, today slammed its winding up, saying people "inimical" to India's security would be happy.

Justifying creation of the specialised snooping unit, he said if it had not been disbanded, it would have been helpful in preventing a number of things happening on the border.

"I think the people who would be most happy with it being wound up, it would be people who are inimical to India's national security," Singh told PTI in an interview.

He was responding to a question whether he agreed with the criticism of the unit which was reportedly accused of undertaking some nefarious activities, such as snooping of Defence Ministry officials and attempt to destabilise Jammu and Kashmir government.

The unit was set up during Gen V K Singh's tenure as Army Chief between April 2010 and May last year. It was wound up soon after his retirement.

It was scrapped after a high-level committee headed by Director General Military Operations Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia recommended so along with a CBI inquiry into its activities.

"If TSD had not been wound up, a lot of things that are happening on the border, would not have happened," Gen Singh asserted. He, however, did not elaborate.

Commenting on allegations that the TSD was trying to destabilise the Jammu and Kashmir government, he said these comments are "laughable. If someone can write in a report that one crore was meant to destabilise the state government, that person does not have any brains."

During the interview, the former Army Chief spoke about a number of other issues like his age controversy which had reached the Supreme Court, his allegations about attempt to bribe him to clear purchase of Tatra trucks and accusations against him for attempting coup in January last year.