New Delhi: An army court on Friday stuck to its earlier finding and pronounced that former 33 Corps commander Lt Gen PK Rath was not guilty of the charge of intent to defraud the army in the Sukna land scam in West Bengal. The General Court Martial in Shillong says the charge of intent to fraud cant be made out against him.
Lt Gen Rath was given a sentence of two-year loss to seniority and a 15-year pension loss. He is the first serving three star officer to be convicted.
He was found guilty of issuing a NoC to a pvt developer to build an educational institution on a plot adjacent to the Sukna military station in Darjeeling.
Rath broke down as the reassembled general court martial (GCM) upheld its earlier finding that he was not guilty of the charge.
"The court attentively considered the observation of confirming authority, and after having perused the evidence on records and the whole proceedings of court martial... (its members) do now respectfully adhere to the first charge," Lt Gen IJ Singh, the presiding officer of court martial, announced in the judgment in Shillong.
The confirming authority in the case is the Eastern Army Commander, Lt Gen Bikram Singh, before whom the verdict of the GCM will be placed. He had June 17 asked the GCM to review its finding that Rath was not guilty of the charge of intent to defraud the army. He was, however, held guilty on two other charges.
With Additional Inputs from Agencies
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