Former Chief of the Army Staff General VK Singh has filed an RTI application seeking the Board of Officers Report on the activities of the ‘shadowy’ Technical Support Divison (TSD) of the Military Intelligence.

In the application, addressed to KL Nandwani, Deputy Secretary, MoD, filed under section 7 of the RTI Act, General (retd) Singh has sought all file notings of Army Headquarters and the Ministry of Defence on the report.

He has sought to personally inspect the files both at Army Headquarters and the MoD. The General has said since the matter affects his life and liberty, the files should be made available to him in the next 48 hours on receipt of application.

“The applicant may kindly be provided a copy of the report submitted to the MoD by the Indian Army prepared by the three members Board of Officers appointed to inquire into the functioning of the TSD, presided over by Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia, DGMO. The inspection of relevant files/records both at MoD and Army Headquarters may also be allowed,” writes Gen VK Singh in the RTI application.

General Singh has also sought relevant files in Army Headquarters and MoD on reports of a ‘coup’ in 2012, saying file notings on the subject both at the Army headquarters and MoD may be provided to him for inspection. The General and his legal team are working on a multi pronged strategy to take on the government on the issue of the leak of the TSD report and a number of other documents – some marked ‘Top Secret’ from the MoD, as it affects “India’s strategic assets,” the General and his legal team insist.

General Singh recently cleared the air on TSD insisting it is wrong to claim it was his ‘personal army’. “The need for TSD was felt during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. It was created on the operational directive of the Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister AK Antony). It was given tasks which its officers diligently carried out to keep India’s borders safe and to maintain internal security along with other agencies. It was not my private army and its activities were budgeted by the Directorate General of Military Intelligence,” Gen VK Singh said in a recent interview.

The General is of the opinion there is nothing that implicates the TSD in the Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia report that was submitted to MoD in March and in turn sent to the National Security Advisor (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon in July for closure.

Sources in MoD refused to comment on Gen VK Singh’s RTI application. “Appropriate action would be taken at the appropriate time,” sources said.