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Josy Joseph,TNN | May 12, 2015, 04.19 AM IST
10-yr rigorous imprisonment to Armyman for bid to sell intel - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: An Army general court martial has awarded 10 years' rigorous imprisonment to a military intelligence staffer who had mysteriously appeared in Kerala in 2012 offering to sell classified data.
The prison term to havildar Sham Das D has brought the spotlight back on Technical Services Division (TSD), a military intelligence unit created by General V K Singh (Retired) when he was the Army chief. The unit's functioning has been caught in controversies since the beginning, and it has also been the subject of repeated inquiries.
The punishment to Sham Das is subject to confirmation by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Army Command, headquartered in Chandimandir.
Das' court-martial began in October last year at an isolated location in Vasant Kunj, southwest Delhi, and concluded last week with the sentencing. The proceedings were headed by a colonel.
TSD was started by Gen Singh, presently a minister of state in the Union government, in mid-2010.
Those close to Gen Singh and members of TSD have always claimed it was a crack intelligence unit that carried out high-risk, high-impact intelligence work, mainly in foreign countries.
However, many others have doubted these claims. In 2012, the then defence secretary and present CAG, S K Sharma, refused to approve the military intelligence budget because of an unusual increase in its budget after TSD was created.
After Singh retired, the Army ordered a high-level review of TSD, which revealed that the unit had used off-air interceptors to tap phones and destroyed those devices. It also found indications of unexplained expenditure.
A few days before Singh's retirement, Das approached some people, who happened to be linked to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, to sell military secrets for a payment. Das was arrested in May 2012.
10-yr rigorous imprisonment to Armyman for bid to sell intel - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: An Army general court martial has awarded 10 years' rigorous imprisonment to a military intelligence staffer who had mysteriously appeared in Kerala in 2012 offering to sell classified data.
The prison term to havildar Sham Das D has brought the spotlight back on Technical Services Division (TSD), a military intelligence unit created by General V K Singh (Retired) when he was the Army chief. The unit's functioning has been caught in controversies since the beginning, and it has also been the subject of repeated inquiries.
The punishment to Sham Das is subject to confirmation by the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Army Command, headquartered in Chandimandir.
Das' court-martial began in October last year at an isolated location in Vasant Kunj, southwest Delhi, and concluded last week with the sentencing. The proceedings were headed by a colonel.
TSD was started by Gen Singh, presently a minister of state in the Union government, in mid-2010.
Those close to Gen Singh and members of TSD have always claimed it was a crack intelligence unit that carried out high-risk, high-impact intelligence work, mainly in foreign countries.
However, many others have doubted these claims. In 2012, the then defence secretary and present CAG, S K Sharma, refused to approve the military intelligence budget because of an unusual increase in its budget after TSD was created.
After Singh retired, the Army ordered a high-level review of TSD, which revealed that the unit had used off-air interceptors to tap phones and destroyed those devices. It also found indications of unexplained expenditure.
A few days before Singh's retirement, Das approached some people, who happened to be linked to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, to sell military secrets for a payment. Das was arrested in May 2012.
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