Age row: Lot of money spent to tarnish my image, says army chief

He said he had evidence that people within the India Army were behind the "derogatory and completely fake" stories against him and action was being taken against them.

"A lot of people went on a drive to tarnish my image because they were not happy with the cleansing action I had taken. You will be surprised to know the amount of money which was spent to get the false certificate about by date of birth," Gen Singh told The Week magazine.

Asked who was spending the money to defame him, he responded, "There were a large number of people. A lot of money was given to a lot of people to do stories against me. The stories were derogatory and completely fake."

When pointed out that one retired Lt General has already been accused of plotting against him, he said, "He was not the only one. We have identified a number of people."

He said, "We have evidence of how documents were leaked and how much money was given" and that they were within the army."

Queried whether he was surprised that serving officers were working against him, the Army Chief said, "In a large organisation like ours, you will always have people who feel left out. There were people who were doing wrong things but after we stopped those things, they turned against me."

For Rediff Realtime News click here