Government says looking into VK Singh's claims

The government is peeved at the claims of former Army Chief Gen VK Singh that "certain ministers" in Jammu and Kashmir were paid money by the army for "stability", saying it is "looking into" the matter to ascertain the veracity.

Highly placed government sources also asserted that the "military has no business to pay politicians".

They said there is a need to have a probe into the claims as it is "wrong" for the military to pay politicians, if such a thing was done.

A formal investigation could be ordered, the sources said but indicated that CBI may not be asked to probe as of now.

"At the moment, we are looking into the claims at various levels," the sources said without revealing the details.

They noted that the claim made by the retired General talked about a "wrong" thing and action needs to be taken.

"But we need to check. We can't take his word and act," the sources said on board Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special aircraft.

The Prime Minister is on his way to the US via Frankfurt to hold bilateral talks with President Barack Obama and attend the UN General Assembly.

The former army chief's comments have embarrassed the government ahead of the Prime Minister's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

Making clear the unhappiness over the statements made by the army chief, the sources said, "The military has no business to pay politicians."

"But we can't jump to conclusions," they said.

The government is of the view that the statements made by the retired General are "irresponsible".

Singh had claimed that "certain ministers" in the Omar Abdullah government have been paid money by the army for "stability" and that such a practice has been going on since Independence.

His claim came after reports suggested that an army probe alleged that a special unit Technical Support Division (TSD) set up during Singh's tenure as the Army Chief had paid Rs1.19 crore to a minister in Jammu and Kashmir to "topple" the government there.