The Intelligence Bureau clean chit to the Army Chief in the leakage of a highly-classified letter written by him to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh regarding the country’s defence preparedness should come as a shot in the arm for Gen. V.K. Singh who has been on the defensive with the government since the age row controversy broke out. The intelligence agency is believed to have conveyed its findings regarding Gen Singh to the defence ministry top brass.
Both defence minister A.K. Antony and Gen Singh had described the person who leaked the letter as a “traitor”, saying that stringent action under the IPC should be taken against the culprit.
Sources in the intelligence establishment however, clarified that the investigations into the ``letter bomb’’ were far from over since they were still trying to ascertain the source of the leak. ``Giving a clean chit to the Army Chief doesn’t mean that our investigations are over. We have still not been able to find out who exactly leaked the classified letter to the media,’’a senior intelligence official said.
A number of officials close to the Army Chief were still under the scanner. But the investigations have confirmed that the leak was well-planned and carried out meticulously.
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Did PMO snub army chief?
Age Correspondents
New Delhi, April 2
Sources in the PMO said on Monday that it had been conveyed to Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh that any meeting with the Prime Minister has to take place only through the requisite official channels, which in this case is the ministry of defence. This was conveyed by the PMO to the Army Chief in response to a verbal request made earlier by the Army Chief for a meeting with the PM, PMO sources said. But late Monday, Gen. V.K. Singh denied having made any verbal or written request to meet the PM. A controversy had erupted recently over leakage of a letter — on critical shortages in the Army — written by Gen. Singh to Dr Singh.