Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash, the military secretary is retiring at the end of the month, on Jan 31. Though he played a key role and a Court of Inquiry conducted by the Kolkata based Eastern Army Command indicted him, he has been saved the ignominy of a court martial and was let off lightly, the Times of India reported on Tuesday, Jan 12.
The daily has termed as ‘feeble’ the response of the army chief Gen Kapoor. The daily termed the scam as one of the biggest scandals in the Indian army. Prakash is a friend of the businessman Dilip Agarwal who also figures in the dubious land deal.
Two other Generals are also indicted in the scam. They are 11 Corps Commander Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali and Major Gen P Sen. Both are let off lightly while a former commander of the Sukna (near Siliguri) based 33 Corps, Lt Gen PK Rath, faces the prospect of a court martial and a jail term. He already lost his appointment as Dy Chief (Information systems and training) at the Army Headquarters.
Halgali and Sen were deputies of Rath at 33 Corps when the scam took place.
The charge against these four officials is that they had facilitated a dubious land deal near Sukna army base. The land in question lies close to the army base and under the law army permission is required to buy land close to military stations.
The Hindustan Times reports that these Generals helped a businessman Dilip Agarwal acquire ‘a no-objection’ certificate. Initially the permission was denied but allegedly at the behest of Prakash, the previous decision was reversed.
On his part, the business man claimed that he needed the land to set up a school and that it would be affiliated to renowned Mayo College in Ajmer. The army has however found that Agarwal’s institution had nothing to do with the Ajmer-based boarding school.
The Times of India sees the Sukna order as a turf war between Gen Deepak Kapoor, whose term ends on March 31 and Eastern Army Commander Lt gen V K Singh, who is slated to succeed him
An army spokesman rejected the view and said that Gen Kapoor has directed the Adjutant General to issue show cause notices to all the ‘tainted’ officers in the Sukna case. ‘They have to respond within 30-days. The next course of action, whether administrative action or disciplinary action will be decided only after that, the spokesman stated.
Yet media reports aver that three of the alleged protagonists, as the Times of India describes them, can get away with ‘little more than a slap on the wrists’ is sure ‘to intensify the buzz about partisanship’.
