PK Rath

New Delhi, Jan. 21: Unable to bear the taint at the very top, an army court martial today convicted a former deputy chief-designate, making him the senior-most serving military officer to be so punished.

Lt General P.K. Rath, who was the commander of the 33 Trishakti Corps in north Bengal, and who was named for the post of the deputy chief of army staff (information systems), was today found guilty on three of seven counts by a General Court Martial (GCM) in Shillong.

The GCM was meeting in Shillong after being convened by the Eastern Command headquarters in Fort William, Calcutta.

The Eastern Command headquarters is also now preparing the ground for disciplinary proceedings against Lt Gen. Avdhesh Prakash, who retired last year as the military secretary to the army chief, in the same Sukna case.

The Sukna land deal, an abortive bid to allow Siliguri-based realtor Dilip Agarwal to build a Rs 295-crore establishment on land adjacent to the military station in north Bengal, was facilitated by the generals, a court of inquiry found last year.

What looked at first like another dirty little land scam went on to erupt as the biggest question mark on the quality of military leadership after Gen. V.K. Singh, then eastern army commander, stressed in internal communication to the government that the commanders had probably jettisoned their primary responsibility — that of guarding the frontiers.

The court of inquiry had concluded that the 33 corps under Lt Gen. Rath, possibly under pressure from the military secretary, had ignored the strategic compulsions of the Siliguri corridor that connects the Northeast with the mainland.

Immediately after he took over as the army chief in March 2010 — and even last week — Gen. V.K. Singh said the “internal health” of the army was his greatest concern.

Today’s court martial verdict will help Gen. Singh restore some of the faith that he feared senior commanders were in danger of losing.

Sukna was the first in a string of land scams that singed the army. It was followed by the Adarsh highrise case and just last month by the southern army commander’s report that norms were violated again to transfer land in Kandivli in north Mumbai.

The GCM in Shillong, under the eastern command, presided over by Lt Gen. I.J. Singh, found Lt Gen. Rath — an officer from the regiment of artillery — guilty on three out of seven charges under the Army Act. Two of the charges are under the head “moral turpitude” and the third for “an act prejudicial to good order and military discipline”.

In plain language, the court martial has concluded that Lt Gen. Rath was wrong in asking the station commander at Sukna to grant a no-objection certificate to transfer 70 acres to the Dilip Agarwal Geetanjali Education Trust floated by the Siliguri realtor.

Agarwal claimed that he would start a school affiliated to Ajmer’s famed Mayo College. The case broke when Mayo College complained to the army — in which many of its alumni serve — in 2008 that it had granted no such affiliation.

Rath further went on to give his nod to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between his command and the businessman. The court martial has concluded, too, that Lt Gen. Rath violated the chain of command in the army by not informing his higher headquarters — the Eastern Command in Fort William, Calcutta, and Army Headquarters in New Delhi — of such a deal in a strategic location.