Shocking revelations have exposed the frail security setup in the South Block, housing the Indian Defence Ministry in Delhi from where an Indian Army deployment plan was leaked to Pakistan in February 2014.
According to reports, details of a meeting between then defence minister AK Antony and then army chief General Bikram Singh on troop movement in Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir borders reached the Pakistan Army, which accordingly countered the Indian plan, stated an article published in the Daily Mail.
The meeting between Antony and Singh took place on February 15, 2014 at 11am, lasting an hour. After the meeting, the army chief briefed then Director General Military Operation (DGMO) Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia about the redeployment plan.
It was noticed that within a few hours, the Pakistan Army had begun redeploying its troops to counter the Indian plan. Alarm bells started ringing in the Indian Army about the shocking “leak”. The army chief immediately informed the defence minister, who then briefed the then prime minister Manmohan Singh.
A meeting of the army top brass was later held with Manmohan Singh, who visited the DGMO war room. The army managed to identify the “mole”, who was a senior officer who had leaked the operational details to Pakistani Inter-Services Public Relations (ISI). He was court-martialled.
As a follow-up step, the security of the entire South Block was beefed up with the installation of CCTV cameras. Then DGMO Bhatia said, “The leak did happen, there is always an insider’s hand.”