Lt. Gen. held guilty in Sukna land scam

Jan 22, 2011 |

Age Correspondent

New Delhi

Former 33 Corps chief Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath was on Friday found guilty of committing irregularities in the Sukna land case by an Army court martial in Shillong, making him the highest-ranking serving armed forces officer ever to be indicted by a court martial.

Lt. Gen. Rath was found guilty on three counts that relate to willingness to issue a no-objection certificate for construction on private land adjoining Army land, issue of directions to sign a MoU with the owners of the private land and not informing the Eastern Command headquarters in Kolkata about his course of action. Army sources confirmed that Lt. Gen. Rath had been held guilty by the court martial on three counts. He was, however, also acquitted on four other charges.
Lt. Gen. Rath was due to take over as the Army’s deputy chief (information systems and training) on November 1, 2009, but his proposed appointment was scrapped after the detection of alleged irregularities.
The quantum of sentence is likely to be pronounced on Sunday. In case an officer is found guilty by a court martial, the disciplinary action could include reprimand, loss of seniority, dismissal from service or else cashiering from service. In the wake of his indictment, Lt. Gen. Rath now has the legal option of petitioning the Armed Forces Tribunal against the court martial verdict.
The Sukna case pertains to the grant of a no-objection certificate by the Army’s 33 Corps for construction on non-Army land adjoining Army land at Sukna in West Bengal in February 2009. Lt. Gen. Rath headed the Siliguri-based 33 Corps at that time.
It had been earlier alleged that the NoC was granted by Lt. Gen. Rath at the behest of the Army’s then military secretary, Lt. Gen. Avdesh Prakash, now retired. Lt. Gen. Rath was investigated by the Army for allegedly suppressing information about the role played by the then military secretary, who is alleged to have introduced businessman Dilip Agarwal to him. Mr Agarwal had reportedly wanted to construct an educational institution in the land adjoining the Army land at Sukna.
Lt. Gen. Rath was earlier probed for his “actions that are alleged to have violated basic norms of security consideration and staff procedures and raised suspicions about the possible motivation”.
The Army had ordered the court of inquiry into the case in 2009 when the matter first came to light. The court of inquiry had later indicted Lt. Gen. Rath. Following that a “summary of evidence” (record of evidence in writing) was conducted by the Army, after which the decision was taken to begin court martial proceedings.
The Armed Forces Tribunal had earlier dismissed a petition filed by Lt. Gen. Rath seeking quashing of the disciplinary proceedings against him.

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