Sukna land scam: Lt Gen Rath to lose 2 years seniority, 15 years service

Agencies

Shillong, 22 January 2011: The Army Court hearing the Sukna land scam case against PK Rath, a former 33 Corps Commander, strongly reprimanded the Lieutenant General. Pronouncing its verdict on Saturday, the court martial ordered two years of seniority loss as well as 15 years of loss of service for Rath.

 
This would mean Rath will face a severe financial setback as his pension would be calculated with 15 years less service. Besides, the verdict closes all chances of his being promoted to the position of Deputy Chief of the Indian Army, something he was being considered for before the scam came to light.

Earlier on Friday, Lt Gen Rath was convicted in the Sukna land scam in West Bengal, which came to light in 2008. This is the first conviction of a serving three-star General by an Army court.

Rath had been charged with intent to defraud the Army by issuing a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to a private realtor to construct an educational institution on a 70-acre plot adjacent to the military station.

Another senior general, Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash, who was the Military Secretary when General Deepak Kapoor was the Army Chief, but is now retired, is also expected to soon face a court martial in the same case. The order for Prakash’s court martial was issued by Kapoor before his retirement in March 2010.

 
The court martial, comprising five senior Lieutenant Generals and headed by Lt Gen IP Singh, found Rath guilty on three counts.

Among the charges are intent to defraud the Army by issuing the NOC "improperly and without authority" and without "due and proper" examination of security concerns of the Army installations; signing a memorandum of understanding with the private realtor to reserve seats in the educational institution for wards of Army officers; and not informing the higher authorities about the land transfer.

The fraud charges, under Section 52 of the Army Act, attract a maximum punishment of 10-year imprisonment.

The judgment was delivered by the General Court Martial after an eight-month long hearing in the case.

 When the scam had come to light, the Army had ordered a Court of Inquiry, which held that Rath and Avadesh Prakash, as also Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali and Maj Gen PK Sen, were blameworthy. Halgali was Rath’s Chief of Staff at 33 Corps and Sen was the administrative head of the Sukna military station in Siliguri district of West Bengal.

The Court of Inquiry had come to the conclusion that Avadesh Prakash had influenced Rath’s decision to issue the NOC to the private realtor, identified as Dalip Aggarwal of Siliguri.

Following the probe report, Kapoor had in early 2010 ordered minor administrative action as punishment to the officers, which was overruled by Defence Minister AK Antony.

Subsequently, Kapoor had to order courts martial against Rath and Avadesh Prakash, who had retired in January 2010.

That apart, the government also had put on hold Rath’s appointment as the Deputy Chief of the Army.

Halgali was let-off with administrative action as he was the whistleblower in the case and had brought the issue to the notice of the Army higher-ups.

Sen faced administrative action, as his role in the entire episode, was found to be minor in nature.