VK Singh has a point: There is a "dacoity" case against Suhag's men

Till 20 December 2011, Surajit Gogoi was one of the many unknown contractors with the Military Engineer Services in Assam. On that night, while he was away in Guwahati from his home – in the state’s Jorhat district - he had to rush back when his wife informed him that some people had forcefully entered their house and taken away valuables and cash. Among the items taken away from Gogoi’s house were Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, gold ornaments, a PAN card, a passport, a licensed pistol, 14 rounds of live ammunition, four mobile phones and other documents. [caption id=“attachment_1566113” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Vice Chief of the Army Staff, Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag. Image courtesy Indian Army.[/caption] This incident is at the centre of the current storm involving former Army Chief Gen VK Singh, who tweeted about the “dacoity”, and which saw parliament raising a ruckus today (11 June). The real story runs like this, according to Gogoi, with whom Firstpost had a conversation today. The Assam Police were informed about the incident but the investigations made little headway till days after the incident. After four days, a call was made to Kangra in Himachal Pradesh from one of the mobile phones that had been seized from Gogoi’s home. This is what blew the lid open on the whole incident. The police investigation soon revealed that it was an Indian Army intelligence team from the Dimapur-based 3 Corps in Nagaland that had carried out an “intelligence operation”. Gogoi obviously does not believe it was a secret military operation. This operation assumes significance as it triggered a full-blown war within the top echelons of the Indian Army, when Gen VK Singh, now Minister for the North East in the Modi government,  launched action against 3 Corps GoC-in-C Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, who is to be the next army chief from 31 July. The Ministry of Defence also got entangled after Singh imposed a Disciplinary and Vigilance ban on Lt Gen Suhag, making him ineligible for elevation as Army Commander to take over the Eastern Command. Lt Gen Suhag could become the boss at Fort William, the Eastern Army Headquarters in Kolkata, only after Gen Bikram Singh vacated the ban after assuming charge as Army Chief. Even after two-and-a-half years after the incident, the succession battle is still on with Gen Singh refusing to budge from his stand and blaming Lt Gen Suhag for “dacoity.” For Gogoi, the case is far from over too as his writ petition—WP(C) 2053/2012—filed on 3 May is sub-judice at the Gauhati High Court. Firstpost spoke to Gogoi to elicit his views about the incident that brought him into the limelight and triggered a major tussle in army headquarters. Why was your house a target of an army intelligence operation? What about the allegations that you have links with the ULFA and NSCN? This was not an intelligence operation. This is a straightforward case of dacoity. I am just a contractor with the Military Engineer Services. All these allegations of my so-called links with underground groups like ULFA and NSCN are all false. The army has falsely mentioned in their affidavit that they had carried out the operation on the ground that I was in touch with these outlawed groups. When did you come to know that the Indian Army was involved in the whole incident? For the first four days after the incident we had no idea that the military was involved. One army havildar Sandeep Thapa used one of my phones to call his home in Kangra and since the number was under surveillance, it was immediately traced to Dimapur in Nagaland. Only then did the military side of the story come to light. What about the role of Assam Police? Why wasn’t the military team arrested immediately? The Assam Police believes it to be an incident of dacoity. The police registered a dacoity case (No 922/2011, under Sections 395/397 IPC) against the army. The Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Jorhat had even issued warrants against the accused. However, the army told the police that they would like to handle the case internally and hold a court martial of the accused. Are you being informed that about the proceedings of the court martial? So far as I know the court martial is going on against Havildar Thapa. The army did inform the Gauhati High Court that they would institute court martial proceedings against three more personnel — Captain Rubina Kaur Keer (the leader of the 15-member intelligence team), Havildar Bhupen Hatimota and Sepoy Jibon Neog. But that did not happen. They were all let off with a light warning. Why do you think this happened? To my knowledge, Captain Keer is the key to the whole incident. If she is involved, Lt Gen Suhag’s elevation as army chief will come into question. If she gets into trouble, the rest of the team would also be in a similar situation. That would make things difficult for Lt Gen Suhag. I suspect that Havildar Thapa has become the scapegoat. Did Lt Gen Suhag know about the operation? Firstly, I don’t believe that Lt Gen Suhag, being the chief of 3 Corps then, had no idea of the operation. How can a team from his corps cross three districts of Karbi Anglong, Golaghat and Jorhat and also trespass into another state for an operation without his permission? This sounds weird. They came to my house on that day on the pretext that some NSCN cadres were taking refuge at my place. This was obviously not the case. Moreover, Jorhat falls under the jurisdiction of the Tezpur-based 4 Corps. The 3 Corps had no role to play whatsoever. Besides, Jorhat is not under the Unified Command and that makes it mandatory for the army to inform the local police before any operation. Neither the police was informed nor did the 4 Corps have any idea about it. Has the army returned everything that they had taken from your house? Except for the cash and gold ornaments they have returned the rest. They have asked for receipts for the gold ornaments which I have provided. The high court has also sought an affidavit from the army yesterday in this regard as to why I was asked to submit receipts and bank statements with the army authority. There will be a hearing after two weeks. Are you threatened by the army? The sheer publicity of the case has forced them to tread quietly. I did have a lot of trouble regarding my contracts in between but now things are better. Even today, I avoid going to the interior part of any military station.