Tribunal rejects Rath's plea in Sukna land scam case

NEW DELHI: The Armed Forces Tribunal today dismissed Lt Gen P K Rath's plea seeking the quashing of charges levelled against him in the ongoing court martial in the Sukna land scam case.

In his plea, Rath had also sought bail and asked to be released from open arrest.

Dismissing the plea, the Tribunal Bench headed by Justice A K Mathur said, "As the court martial is already under progress, we don't intend to interfere in the proceedings at this stage."

Rath argued that the charges of 'intent to defraud' in the court martial against him were incorrect as there was no mention of such things in the court of inquiry also.

On his plea for bail, the Bench said that in view of Rath's seniority and the ailing health conditions of his wife, the Army authorities should reconsider their decision on keeping him under 'open arrest'.

Army counsel Colonel R Balasubramaniam also assured the Tribunal that he would impress upon his clients to re-look at their earlier decision to reject Rath's plea for being released from 'open arrest'.

Rath had filed his bail plea after his court martial was convened but it was rejected by the Eastern Army Commander.

The former 33 Corps Commander is facing a court martial at Shillong in the case for granting No-objection Certificates (NOC) to private realtors at a 70-acre piece of land adjacent to the Sukna Military Station for building educational institutions.

Rath was indicted by a Court of Inquiry (CoI) in the case along Lt Gens Avadesh Prakash and Ramesh Halgali and Maj Gen P K Sen.

Prakash is also facing a disciplinary action in the case whereas the Halgali and Sen faced only administrative action.

Halgali is presently holding the charge of the Director General of Military Training at the Army headquarters here.