New Delhi:
A serving Lieutenant General of the Indian Army P K Rath has been court martialled in the Sukna land scam case.
Lt Gen Rath has been found guilty by an Army court of issuing the no-objection certificate to the builder, signing an MoU and not informing the Command Headquarters.
Speaking to NDTV, Lt Gen P K Rath's brother Proffesor Pratap Kumar Rath said that they will appeal against the court martial in the Supreme Court.
"We are a democracy and are not run by martial law. We're Indians and every Indian citizen has a right to seek final justice from the Supreme Court," he said.
Earlier, a court of inquiry instituted to look into the case had found Lieutenant General Rath, a former commander of the 33 corps and retired military secretary Lieutenant General Awadesh guilty.
Lt General Rath had given a no objection certificate (NOC) to a private developer to commercially develop a 71-acre land adjacent to the Sukna military station in Darjeeling district in December 2009 despite repeated objections by his own officers.
Rath overruled objections of other officers. He also issued the NOC without informing Eastern Command or Army Headquarters.
Lieutenant General Prakash, the then military secretary, had influenced Lt Gen Rath to issue a NOC to Dilip Aggarwal, the private builder who falsely claimed to be setting up an affiliate of the Mayo College in Sukna.
It was Lt Gen Rath's chief of staff, the then Maj Gen (now a serving Lt. Gen and DG, Military Training) Ramesh Halgali who had complained to Eastern Army Command about the NOC.
Surprisingly, the then Chief of Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor censured Lieutenant General Ramesh Halgali and five other officers who blew the whistle in the Sukna land scam.