Veterans fume over Adarshgate

Even as an inquiry is on to detect duplicity, if any, by serving/retired officers in the reappropriation of land occupied by headquarters, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa (MGG) area for the past 60 years, defence veterans are seething with anger.

On Saturday, Mumbai Citizens Group, a non-profit organisation, and other defence veterans demanded that chief of army staff General VK Singh initiate a court of inquiry to recover the land and the assets abandoned for use by the army and obviate the security concerns.

More importantly, they have sought an inquiry into the role of the alleged kingpin, Major General (retired) Tej Kaul, during whose tenure as general officer commanding (GOC), MGG area, the land was handed over to Adarsh, and RC Thakur, a junior officer in the defence estates department, where both own flats.

In their letter to Singh, the veterans said that since 2000, each of the GOCs, Maharashtra and Gujarat areas — Maj Gen AR Kumar, Maj Gen VS Yadav, Maj Gen TK Kaul, Maj Gen Tejinder Singh, Maj Gen RK Hooda — have become members of the Adarsh society for allotment of flats to them or their relatives.

The letter alleges that in return, these officers remained silent about the scam. “Kaul’s role should be probed well. It is the first time that an individual (Kaul) was first posted as sub-area commander of the MGG area, and he returns as the GOC in the same area,’’ said a colonel based in Bengaluru.

“All those who approved the file, starting from Lt Gen Sihota, a beneficiary based in southern command at Pune, vice chief of army staff Lt Gen Shantanu Chaudhary, and the chief of army staff Gen NC Vij should be tried for criminal conspiracy and breach of trust,’’ said a senior army officer.

Defence veterans have not taken kindly to the offer of the three chiefs: Admiral Madhvendra Singh, then chief of naval staff, Vij, and Gen Deepak Kapoor, to now return the flats. The letter demands that the trio be stripped of their ranks.