Hunt for New DGMI Narrows Down

New Delhi, Aug 12 (UNI) With incumbent Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) Lieutenant General Deepak H Summanwar forced to proceed on ''long leave'' following his ''gross misuse'' of Army equipment for a private film project, the hunt for his successor has narrowed down -- to his immediate junior and Additional DGMI-A Major General Manbir Singh Dadwal.

The Dogra Regiment General Officer has graced his present post for almost an year -- prior to which he was the General Officer Commanding 27 Mountain Division ('Striking Lion').

According to highly-placed sources in the Defence Ministry, the search for a new DGMI began almost the day when Lt Gen Summanwar was asked by the Army Headquarters here to proceed on 'Compulsory Long Leave' for his ''misusing and abusing'' his office for a film project involving his wife and other kins.

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 the Army's land and aviation equipment in the filming of a feature film produced by his wife Mrs Shaurya Summanwar, sources in the Ministry of Defence (MOD) said.

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 MOD sources said Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had taken ''a serious note'' of the ''misuse and abuse'' of his office by the General Officer and pulled up other 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.

With the prevailing security situation in the country not permitting the post of DGMI to remain vacant for long, the search for Lt Gen Summanwar's successor had begun post-haste -- and now it appears that the powers-that-be have settled their sights on Maj Gen Dadwal, the MOD sources indicated.

UNI DG VD PM1924