Colonel Hunny Bakshi, the former Commanding Officer (CO) of the Technical Support Division (TSD)-a secretive military intelligence unit, revealed how senior Army officers tried to hush up the infamous Jorhat Dacoity case.

Col Bakshi regretted that it was all due to the misdeeds of some senior officers that the nation lost a potent organization called TSD.

The TDS was set up in 2010 under the former Army Chief General V K Singh, who is now a Union Minister, and disbanded after he retired in 2012.

In a series of tweets, Col Bakshi narrated the episode of the Jorhat Dacoity case in which some senior Army officers brazenly tried to hush up the matter, and for some reasons known to them tried to save a rouge commanding officer and his team.

Col Hunny Bakshi
Twitter / @colhunnybakshi

While narrating events of the infamous dacoity case, he tweeted, "Fact is that - for some dubious reasons the Corps Cdr & BGS Ops were trying to save the rogue CO & his team, his name is involved in a triple murder case too where the complainant is a unit officer".

"Fact is – due to this case, the nation lost a potent organization called TSD", he argued.

Culprits were protected; professional officers were tortured

Revealing further details, Col Bakshi said that the then Army Chief General V K Singh realizing that the image of the organization was taking a beating, called up the then Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag to take corrective actions as laid down by rules, and instructed that no culprit should be spared, if found involved

"Lt General Suhag on the contrary against the law moved court & took over the case from the police under AA Sec 125", Col Bakshi tweeted.

"The Supreme Court has earlier clarified that the Army can take the custody of a serving person for the "purpose of trial", which means that, after the police investigation is over and chargesheet is filed in the trial court. It is at this stage, the case can be taken over for trial by Court Martial (Army's internal investigation has no value, and the case will be tried on evidence collected by investigating agency)", he argued.

"As also the charges will be as in trial court, a hurried Court of Inquiry (COI) was conducted, and the Commanding Officer Col Srikumar was saved, Lt Col Dharamveer who was not even in Dimapur when the incident happened, was punished for dereliction of duty. The lady officer leading the botched-up "operation" was reprimanded", Col Bakshi revealed.

"The fact is that the HQ 3 Corps had no idea of this operation, it was a dacoity, there was no Bijoy Chinese, he was in Myanmar, services of an Asom Police officer were requested to create this narrative, that too is a fact. Professional officers were tortured by these very officers who later managed to get top posts within the organization with the support of political clout and elements within the Minister of Defence (MoD) who wanted to undo everything that Gen VK created", Col Bakshi tweeted.

Jorhat Dacoity Case

After the 2011 Jorhat Dacoity Case, the then Army Chief Gen V K Singh had ordered a promotion ban on the then Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Sugah who later became Army Chief. Gen V K Singh is now a minister in the union government.

In an FIR registered on December 21, 2011, one Renu Gogoi alleged that dacoity was committed by Army officials of 3 Corps Intelligence and Surveillance Unit led by a female officer on the ground of suspected presence of banned ULFA cadre.

It was alleged that said Army personnel raided her house, blindfolded the inmates, and looted valuables. including Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, Rs 6.5 lakh worth gold jewellery, a pistol and four mobiles phones

She said the Army personnel had covered their faces to conceal their identity and blindfolded the inmates. She said the raiding team had not followed the procedural requirement of informing the local police about the raid.

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