Army DGMI Sent on 'Forced Leave'

New Delhi, Aug 11 (UNI) In a surprise move, Director General of Military Intelligence Lieutenant General Deepak H Summanwar has been sent on 'Compulsory Long Leave' by the Army Headquarters, it has been reliably learnt.

According to highly-placed sources in the Defence Ministry, the action was taken in view of Lt Gen Summanwar having ''misused defence equipment and manpower'' for a private project involving his wife and other kins.

The sources said the General Officer, earlier the Additional Director General - Public Information in his rank as Major General -- and thus the public face of the Indian Army, had indiscriminately utilised Army's land and aviation equipment in the filming of a feature produced by his wife Mrs Shaurya Summanwar.

Significantly, the wife of Army Chief General JJ Singh, Mrs Anupama Singh, has acted in the film and Aarti, Lt Gen Summanwar's daughter, plays the lead role in the feature film titled ''Shaurya''.

The sources further said that Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had taken ''a serious note'' of the ''misuse and abuse'' of his office by the General Officer and pulled up the senior Army officers who had allowed Lt Gen Summanwar's ''misadventure''.

The sources said the film unit had freely used Army equipment, including choppers of the Army, for shooting of the film during the Passing Out Parade at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, besides other units and Army formations A new DGMI is, therefore, frantically being looked for, the sources said. The prevailing security situation in the country does not allow the post of DGMI to remain vacant for long, they added.

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