VK Singh rubbishes Manish Tewari's statement on 2012 Army troop movement story

Almost four years after it was published, Congress leader Manish Tewari has confirmed the veracity of the Indian Express report on two army troops moving towards Delhi in January 2012 without any notification.

Speaking at the book launch of former Principal Information Officer I Ramamohan Rao's book Conflict, Communication - chronicles of a communicator, Tewari said, "I used to serve in the Standing Committee on Defence and it is unfortunate but the story was true. Story was correct.".

Union Minister VK Singh, who was the army chief at the time has rubbished Tiwari's statement. Speaking to reporters he said, "Manish Tewariji has nothing to do these days. There is this book of mine, ask him to read it and every thing will be clear to him."

The Indian Express had on 4 April 2012, reported that late on the night of 16 January 2012 - the day then Army Chief General VK Singh approached the Supreme Court on his date of birth issue - central intelligence agencies reported an unexpected (and non-notified) movement by a key military unit from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) as a part of the 33rd Armoured Division (which is a part of 1 Corps, a strike formation based in Mathura and commanded by Lt Gen AK Singh) in the direction of the capital, 150 km away.

The Indian Express had earlier claimed the report is a meticulous reconstruction and a very sober interpretation of the movement of two key Army units towards New Delhi on the night of January 16-17. The then Army Chief had later said the report in The Indian Express on unusual troop movements in the direction of the capital in mid-January was 'absolutely stupid'.

Congress was in power at the centre when the story was published. The Defence ministry had then dismissed the story as ' baseless'

- With inputs from ANI