JOIN US The order of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) quashing the court martial of Lt Gen P K Rath brought the focus on a scam perpetrated over a 71-acre land next to the headquarters of the 33 Corps of the Indian Army at Sukna near Siliguri in West Bengal.
The Court of Inquiry had found Rath guilty of issuing a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to real-estate developer for building an educational institute on the piece of land, despite the Army already being in the process of acquiring it from the West Bengal government.
The Army had in May 2008 written to the West Bengal government expressing its interest in acquiring the plot of land, as it would not have been appropriate to sell it to a private developer from the security point of view.
After Rath took over as the commander of the 33 Corps in October 2008, the Army's decision to buy the land had been reiterated. A few days later, during an official tour to the 33 Corps headquarters, Lt Gen Avdesh Prakash, then Military Secretary of the Indian Army, had referred Agarwal to Rath.
Agarwal had headed Geetanjali Educational Trust, which had been keen on building a massive academic institution on the plot adjacent to the headquarters. Rath had granted Agarwal the NOC in March 2010.
Rath later claimed that he had taken the decision at the behest of Prakash.
The Court of Inquiry found Rath guilty of issuing the NOC without informing the Command Headquarters about the decision.