Swati Chaturvedi
New Delhi: The Intelligence Bureau on Wednesday told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh categorically that a group of lobbyists were trying to plant "alarmist stories in a bid to discredit the Army Chief". This is what the PM was alluding to when he said there was more to The Indian Express story on ‘unusual troop movement’ than meets the eye.
Senior IB officials told Zee News that linkages such as the return of the Defence Secretary were made to stitch a "melodrama" where none existed. The Defence Secretary did return but, it was to sign the government affidavit to be filed in the Supreme Court on Army Chief VK Singh's age petition.
The PMO, the Ministry of Defence and even the intelligence agencies did not make the linkages that were made in the newspaper report.
The IB has told the PM that the row between the Army Chief and MoD has divided the Army in to two camps and brigadiers are almost functioning as "moles" leaking information to the media and the arms lobbies.
The IB has also told the government that some confidential information about the family vacations of some top serving and retired officials at the expense of the lobbyists in United Kingdom has also come to light. A link with an arms dealer of a Paris-based relative of a former top Army official has also emerged.
First Published: Wednesday, April 04, 2012, 23:21