Lt Gen Rath acquitted
Shillong: In a reprieve to Lt Gen Prashant Kumar Rath, an army court on Friday acquitted him of the ‘intent to defraud’ charge, disagreeing with the revision order of the Eastern Army Commander which had asked it to have a fresh look into earlier findings in the Sukna land scam.
The Eastern Army Commander, the convening authority in the 2008 land scam, had directed the general court martial (GCM) to reconvene asking it to reconsider the intend to defraud charge of which Rath was earlier acquitted.
“The court has not agreed to the revision order saying there were no new issues to be deliberated upon. The court did not interfere with the original order and adhered to its earlier findings,” defence counsel Major SS Pandey quoted the general court martial’s presiding officer Lt Gen IJ Singh as saying in his verdict.
Rath broke down in the court in an apparent sign of relief as the presiding officer pronounced the verdict after a close-door deliberation with five other lieutenant generals in the jury for about two and half hours on the observations in the revision order.
Prosecution counsel Raghavendra Jha, however, was unhappy at the verdict saying the GCM did not give due weightage to certain evidence on record and the observations made by the confirming authority.
Rath was facing seven charges but the GCM, in its earlier judgement on January 22, had found him guilty on three counts for procedural irregularities and four other charges including that of intent to defraud were dropped.
Rath, former Deputy Chief of Army Staff-designate, was found guilty of conveying NoC in the capacity of 33 Corps Commander to a private realtor for constructing educational institutions on a plot adjacent to the Sukna military station near Siliguri in West Bengal.
The other two charges for which he was found guilty were signing of MoU with Geetanjali Trust for construction of the educational institute and for not informing his superiors in the Eastern Command about the proposed agreement. (PTI)