Army removes all TSD intel officers

In an unprecedented move, the Indian Army has posted out all the officers of the Technical Support Division (TSD), leaving the unit without any leadership. The TSD was in the news earlier this year for allegedly carrying out interception of telephone conversations from the Ministry of Defense in South Block and allegedly violating rules of expenditure.

StratPost has not come across prior instances where all officers of a unit were posted out at the same time. Army sources insist there is no move to close down the unit, yet, even though they remain unclear when new officers would be posted to the unit.

The TSD is the unit that was commanded by Colonel Hunny Bakshi, who was alleged to have led the activities mentioned above. He has received psychiatric treatment in recent months at an army hospital in Delhi. The unit was reputed to report only to the former army chief, General V.K. Singh, during the period of his tenure.

During the period of his treatment, there were also reports of a breach of security with two civilians reportedly entering the premises of the TSD without authorization on August 16th of this year.

Hindi television news channel, IBN7, reported the story of the trespass on August 19, 2012, alleging the two civilians to be former Director General of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), retired Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh and a journalist from an English newspaper.

Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh had been alleged by former army chief, retired General V.K. Singh to have offered him a bribe worth INR 140 million, to facilitate the procurement of 600 Tatra heavy trucks, a vehicle already in service in the Indian Army. Since then, Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh has filed a defamation lawsuit against General V.K. Singh and other officers of the Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) for airing the charges. The procurement of Tatra trucks has also been put on hold by the defense ministry, which also suspended the head of Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), V.R.S. Natarajan, last June.

The inquiry into the role of the TSD with respect to the snooping controversy and its functioning in general by four officers led by the Director General Military Operations (DGMO) Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia also completed it’s task sometime back and appears to have found no cause to initiate a court of inquiry.