Shillong: An Army court martial, which
convicted Lt Gen Prashant Kumar Rath in the Sukna land scam,
was also skeptical about the then Brigadier and now Major
General PC Sen, who, it observed, gave "wavering and evasive"
statements when called as a witness.
Sen was shown in poor light by the court martial for
directing Sukna Station Commander Brigadier Sunil Chadda for
changing a `minute sheet` to give conditional NoC to
Geetanjali Trust for constructing a residential school
adjacent to the military station.
According to a "noting" of the Sukna Military Station, no
construction activity was permitted near the Sukna Military
Station till the finalization of the new building of the
military base.
However, the then Brigadier Sen had repeatedly asked the
Station Commander to change the noting in order to facilitate
a conditional NoC for the proposed school, the court martial`s
presiding officer Lt Gen IJ Singh observed.
Lt Gen Singh, while delivering the judgement on Rath
yesterday, said Sen had told Chadda that he was asked by the
GOC (Rath) to change the notings.
Even though Chadda wanted to meet Rath to verify the
direction, Sen insisted that the GOC has made up his mind, Lt
Gen Singh said in his judgement, indicating that Chadda was
persuaded by Sen not to meet the GOC to verify the order.
"The prosecution has failed to prove that Rath had
directed the change in the notings. When Sen was called as a
witness, he gave wavering and evasive statements. Maj Gen Sen
never admitted that he was asked by Rath to change the
notings.”
"He said he was only asked by the GOC to take care of
all formalities for entering into an MoU with the private
party that does not mean that the GOC had directed the
change in the notings," the presiding officer observed.
In his final statement before the court martial, Lt Gen
Rath also mentioned the incident asked the court to "consider"
the "unethical" move by Maj Gen Sen for changing the noting.
An Army Court of Inquiry had found Rath guilty of
wrongdoing along with Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash, the then
Military Secretary to the Army Chief, Lt Gen Ramesh Halguly,
the then 11 Corps Commander and Maj Gen P C Sen.
Subsequently, the Court Martial was ordered against
Rath and Prakash while administrative action was directed
against the two other officers.
The Army Court Martial yesterday had ordered a two-year
seniority loss, 15 years of loss of service for pension and
severe reprimand for former Deputy Chief of Army
Staff-designate Lt Gen PK Rath for procedural lapses in Sukna
land scam.
PTI
