Prime minister should initiate high-level inquiry into reports of army coup attempt in 2012, says VK Singh

New Delhi: Union minister and former army chief VK Singh on Thursday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a high-level inquiry into the alleged planting of “fallacious” stories to the media about an attempted coup in 2012. “At that time also (in 2012), in clear words I had said that the Indian Army will never do a thing that is unconstitutional. We were very clear on it. The sentiment was echoed by the then defence minister AK Antony, who denied in both houses of Parliament that something like this has happened. He reiterated the same yesterday in Rajya Sabha. There was no doubt that there were some who went to town for some ulterior motive,” Singh said. [caption id=“attachment_2919198” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of VK Singh. PTI[/caption] Singh’s remarks come a day after the BJP accused the previous government of allegedly leaking to the media an inaccurate story about a coup. In a press conference, BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao sought to know the identity of the minister who leaked the story. Singh, who was the chief of the army then said he had written about the issue in 2012 to then home minister urging for an investigation “needs to be investigated because this is treason”. “You cannot accuse the armed forces of a thing like this. However, nothing happened to those complaints I sent to the MHA. Now this expose has come out,” he said. “I have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday stating that this needs to be investigated at the highest level to expose these people, who have committed treason against the country. Let’s leave it to the judgement of the prime minister,” the Union minister said. “He has made attempts to raise the morale of the armed forces, while in 2012, people were trying to bring down the morale of the forces and they were working against the country by planting stories which were absolutely fallacious. There needs to be an inquiry at the highest level.” On 2 February, The Sunday Guardian, in a report, had stated that the “top leadership of the UPA-2 government, in the last few months of 2011 and early 2012, had informally indicated to the Intelligence Bureau to try and establish that the army, under its chief, General VK Singh, was attempting a coup to topple the government”.