Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday told his state assembly that he had written to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh regarding the corruption allegations levelled by Former Army Chief General V.K. Singh, and said that in the letter he had demanded an extensive probe into the issue to restore the credibility of all political parties in the state.
"On 25 September, I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister and did not declare this in the public earlier because the Prime Minister was abroad at that time. I did not want that before his reading my letter, the media takes over and scrutinizes the letter," Abdullah told the House here.
In the letter, Abdullah said that he explicitly demanded a probe into the matter, the conclusions of which should be shared with the general public as and when they become available, so that the credibility of the politicians of Jammu and Kashmir is restored.
"Without any specific details, the finger of suspicion is being pointed to all mainstream politicians. This has called enormous damage to the institution of democracy in the state," Abdullah wrote in his letter to Dr. Manmohan Singh.
"Such a course of action would help clear the confusion and the doubts from the minds of the people and restore, to a significant extent, credibility of mainstream political parties and members amongst our people," he added.
Abdullah also assured the House that he was acting on behalf of all political parties in the state, and not only for his own government. " I upheld my responsibility by writing this letter to the Prime Minister. Without interference, I wrote it to make sure that this matter is not swept under the carpet. ...It is my right to know, as an individual, if my army had tapped my phones. It is my right to know if money has been given, then to whom has it been given? The public has the right to know," Abdullah told the House.
Earlier, former chief of army staff General V. K. Singh disclosed that money from a secret army fund was given to some ministers in the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. Later he clarified that they were given for social schemes and not for destabilising the State government as was reported in a Delhi newspaper.
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General Singh told television channels, including CNN-IBN and Times Now, that the money was given as part of Operation Sadbhavna schemes carried out by the army.
He said it was given to only to stabilise areas affected by terror, as well as the areas across the border.
General Singh had earlier stated that certain ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet were given these amounts from time to time, which prompted the state government and the Union Home Ministry to ask him on Tuesday to name the ministers who were paid the money.
Meanwhile, General Singh has filed an RTI application seeking a copy of the army probe report, which reportedly questions the functioning of a unit set up by him for human intelligence gathering.