Supreme Court asked to stop Bikram Singh from taking over as army chief

Mangalore Today / NDTV

New Delhi, April 4:  When General VK Singh, the chief of the Indian Army, steps down at the end of May, he is meant to be replaced by Lt General Bikram Singh, currently the Eastern Army Commander.

But as with all things related to the army recently, that’s turning into a controversy. A Public Interest Litigation or PIL filed in the Supreme Court today says that the army chief-designate was involved in a fake encounter in 2001. The Supreme Court has not yet admitted this petition. The PIL has been filed by a group of retired officers and bureaucrats headed by Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas, who retired as the navy chief. The petition says that Lt General Singh failed to take action against officers who were involved in sexual harassment and rape when they were posted to the Congo in 2008 as part of the UN peace-keeping mission.

The PIL alleges that the Lt General’s promotion is politically influenced. It says "a person holding high office should be able to act independently and impartially."
 
In March 2001, a 60-year-old man was killed in an encounter by the Army on the outskirts of Anantnag in Kashmir. Lieutenant General Singh was then a Brigadier heading the 1 Sector Rashtriya Rifles headquartered in Anantnag. He was injured in the encounter and was given a gallantry medal. A colonel and another jawan were killed too.
 
The Army claimed that the man who was killed was a wanted foreign militant. In court, however, his family has argued that Abdullah Bhat was a daily wage earner.