Former Army Chief General VK Singh threatens to drag Home Minister to court

NEW DELHI: Former Army chief Gen VK Singh has issued a legal notice to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, threatening to drag him to court over alleged "failure" to act upon his complaints of "sedition and treason" against certain individuals.

In the notice served to the Home Minister through his lawyer Vishwajeet Singh, the retired General, who joined BJP today, said, "Why judicial intervention should not be sought in the matter against you for dereliction of duty in such a serious matter that has direct implications on India's national security."

The former chief said he had complained to Shinde on "offences of sedition, treason and violations of the official secrets act by certain individuals" referring to some media publications on "attempted military coup" and had sought probe into the matter.

Singh has given seven days time to Shinde to respond to his notice, failing which he said he will initiate legal action against him.

The alleged offences mentioned by Singh against some media persons and Army officials were related to violations under Official Secrets Act, 1923 and the National Security Act, 1980 as also under various penal provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Singh said he had issued a reminder to the Home Minister in December seeking response on his previous complaint.

Shinde, however, did not respond either to the complaint or to the reminder, the notice said.

"You chose to initiate no action whatsoever upon receiving the said complaint. You further chose not to respond to my client or inform him as to the reasons for not taking any action on his complaint," it said.