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Sukna Land Scam: Court Martial Reassembles

  •   Mon, Jul 11 2011 11:02:48 AM

Shillong, July 11 (IANS) The general court martial (GCM), which convicted former 33 Corps Commander Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath in the Sukna land scam in West Bengal, reassembled here Monday to reconsider his acquittal on one charge.

The General Officer Commander-in-Chief Eastern Command Lt. Gen Bikram Singh ordered the GCM to reassemble at the 58 Gorkha Training Centre here.

"The confirming authority (Bikram Singh) ordered the GCM to reassemble tomorrow (Monday) to reconsider its findings of Rath being found not guilty of the first charge of intent to defraud," an army officer told IANS Sunday.

"The GCM will relook its findings as it failed to properly appreciate the evidence on record and accorded due weightage to the evidence," the officer said.

Rath had been charged with intent to defraud the army by issuing a no-objection certificate (NOC) to a private realtor to construct an educational institution on a 70-acre plot adjacent to the Sukna military station in Darjeeling district.

An eight-month-long court martial, comprising five senior lieutenant generals and headed by Lt. Gen. I.P. Singh, had found Rath guilty on three counts.

In January, the GCM against Rath, the first serving lieutenant general to be found guilty, recommended taking "off the rank and the precedence of appointment" with substantive effect from May 24, 2010.

Rath is the seniormost serving general to be hauled up for indiscipline. The sentence is expected in a couple of days from now.

Another senior officer, Lt. Gen. Avadesh Prakash, who was the military secretary when General Deepak Kapoor was the army chief and has now retired, is also expected to soon face a court martial in the case. The order for Prakash's court martial was issued by Kapoor before his retirement in March 2010.
  

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Comment on this article

  • chandra, USA

    Mon, Jul 11 2011

    Unlawful Command Influence?
    The burden of proof that there was no command influence will lie with prosecution. In this case of reconvening with out any additional evidence, it may prove to be a clear case of UCI.
    “This Court has consistently held that any circumstance which gives even the appearance of improperly influencing the court-martial proceedings against the accused must be condemned."- United States v. Hawthorne, 22 C.M.R. 83. The presence of an inelastic attitude on the part of convening authority (CA) may suggest that the CA may not adhere to the appropriate legal standards in the post-trial review process and that he may be inflexible in reviewing convictions because of his predisposition to approve certain harsher findings ( intent to defraud) and corresponding harsher sentences. Is this not a classic case of UCI ? Once the issue of command influence is properly placed at issue, “no reviewing court may properly affirm findings and sentence unless [the court] is persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that the findings and sentence have not been affected by the command influence United States v. Thomas 13 U.S.C.M.A. 278 (1962) may be very persuasive.

    Any criminal justice system should not only be fair but should appear to be so! Does the present facts of the case pass this test? Clearly NO seems to be the answer.

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse


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