Team Anna sees conspiracy against 'honest' minister, General

New Delhi, Apr 10: Demanding an impartial inquiry into the controversy surrounding Army, Team Anna today alleged that the probe by CBI and Intelligence Bureau will not bring out the truth as the bodies are "under the control of government".

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Anna Hazare and his key associates wondered whether the recent report in a newspaper about "unusual movement" of two units of Army troops was aimed at removing Defence Minister AK Antony and Army chief Gen VK Singh.

"Does the recent developments in the past few months show that there is a conspiracy against the honest Army General and honest Defence Minister?" the letter signed by Hazare, Shanti Bhushan, Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi.

Alleging that the probe by CBI into cases of corruption flagged by Gen Singh and IB into the leakage of Army Chief's letter to Prime Minister will not bring out the truth, the letter said these agencies were not independent and were under the control of political masters.

"If the accused, brokers and corrupt have control over investigating agencies, they will not be able to bring truth to light...and people of the country are unhappy at the measures taken by your government in this regard," it said.

The letter also alleged that it was reported by a media house that a central minister was behind the news report published by the newspaper. Linking their fight for a strong Lokpal to the issue, they said that if there was a strong Lokpal, this issue could have been investigated by it.

They also took exception to the exclusion of armed forces from the purview of Lokpal when the Bill was discussed in Lok Sabha on December 27 last year.

PTI