Story on 2012 January troop movement true, says Manish Tewari

Congress strongman and former minister Manish Tewari has said that the English Newspaper's story on troop movement towards PM’s residence was ‘unfortunately true’.

A leading daily in a 2012 report had claimed that two units of Indian Army made an unnotified movement towards Delhi.

The report was titled as, "The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt".

“At that time, I used to serve in the Standing Committee of Defence. And it’s unfortunate, but the story was true. The story was correct,” he said.

“I am not getting into an argument. All I am saying is that to the best of my knowledge that story was correct,” said Tewari during a book launch function here.

The report published on April 4, 2012, said that late on the night of January 16, 2012. This was the time when Army Chief General VK Singh approached the Supreme Court on his date of birth issue.

Central intelligence agencies reported an unexpected (and non-notified) movement by a key military unit from the mechanised infantry based in Hisar (Haryana) as a part of the 33^rd Armoured Division (which is a part of 1 Corps, a strike formation based in Mathura and commanded by Lt Gen. A K Singh) in the direction of the capital, 150 km away.

However, the then Army Chief had later said the report in The Newspaper on unusual troop movements in the direction of the capital in mid-January was “absolutely stupid”.