Under extreme pressure from the government and media to take action against officials embroiled in the Sukhna land scam, Army chief Deepak Kapoor on Thursday vaguely hinted that action would soon be taken against the offenders. Army has a history of taking expeditious action against such cases and I have already issued a set of directions,” he said. "We will take due action as per the rules in the Army Act," he said. “I have received inputs and legal advice and after due deliberation and analysis of the case a set of directions have been issued. As the disciplinary proceedings are on, I cannot comment on the details of the case. But let me assure you that any aberration will be dealt with firmly. We will take due action against the offenders as per the Army Act,” he added.
Army has a history of taking expeditious action against such cases and I have already issued a set of directions,” he said. "We will take due action as per the rules in the Army Act," he said. “I have received inputs and legal advice and after due deliberation and analysis of the case a set of directions have been issued. As the disciplinary proceedings are on, I cannot comment on the details of the case. But let me assure you that any aberration will be dealt with firmly. We will take due action against the offenders as per the Army Act,” he added.Spelling out his stand on the Sukhna scam, he added,” My responsibility is to dispense justice and it will be fair, just and fact based.” Although General Kapoor assured action against the guilty officials yet he sounded evasive and unclear. He failed to set a time frame for action and did not spell out the details of the land scam. He was also unable to say anything on the disciplinary action against the guilty generals.
The press conference seemed a mere act to pacify media. Pressure on the Army to sack officials embroiled in a land scam increased last week as Indian Army chief Deepak Kapoor met with the union Defence Minister AK Antony.
Antony was believed to have asked Kapoor to act on the Court of Inquiry (COI) report on a land scam in Sukhna cantonment in West Bengal. The report recommended “termination of service” of Lt. Gen. Avadhesh Prakash, the Military Secretary at Army HQ and the initiation of court martial proceedings against Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath, whose appointment as deputy chief of army staff has been scrapped by the Defence Ministry.
Earlier, the Army court had indicted the two officers for their role in issuing a no-objection certificate to a private establishment that falsely claimed to be establishing an affiliate of the well known Ajmer-based Mayo College on land adjacent to the Sukhna military station in Darjeeling district.
The CoI had also reported to have recommended administrative action against another lieutenant general and disciplinary action and court martial against a major general. Prakash is one of the eight Principal Staff Officers (PSOs) at Army HQ who act as advisors to the army chief. As Military Secretary, he is responsible for the promotions and postings of officers. P.K. Rath was commander of the Sukhna-based 33 Corps when the alleged land scam took place.
0 comments:
Post a Comment