Sukna land scam: Lieutenant General Rath to lose seniority, pension

Court-martialled in a land scam, serving army general P K Rath would lose seniority of two years and have to forgo 15 years’ pension, according to an army court order on Saturday.

With his service till March 2012, Lt. Gen Rath will be thus two years’ junior to his batch mates.

Lt. General P K Rath has been found guilty in the Sukna land scam case of West Bengal and court martialled.

Lt Gen Rath, who is former commander of the 33 corps, has been found guilty along with retired military secretary Lieutenant General Awadesh Prakesh. He became the first serving lieutenant general to be court-martialled.

The army court had in Feb 2010 indicted him and Prakash for their role in issuing a no-objection certificate to a private establishment that falsely claimed to be establishing an affiliate of the well known Ajmer-based Mayo College on land adjacent to the Sukhna military station in Darjeeling district.

Lt. Gen Rath had reportedly issued the No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the private builder for construction work near army headquarters at Sukna.
He had even signed an MoU with the builder, reports said.