Former Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh, currently a Union minister, sought to question the Armed Forces Tribunal’s knowledge of the armed forces, stating, “I have nothing to comment on the decision. The tribunal has an honourable judge who is advised by retired armed forces officers. What advice the armed forces officers give him is what he goes by because he does not know anything about the armed forces.”
“There is a need for people to look at it again. In 77 pages, you do not talk (about) whether there was a scam or not, what was the validity of the whole thing. You only talk of peripheral individual issues. We need to look at it again,” he said.
Gen. Singh hoped that the ministry of defence would appeal the verdict quashing the court martial of Lt. Gen. P.K. Rath (Retd) and clearing Gen. Rath in the Sukna land scam case.
The minister said Gen. Rath had failed to inform higher authorities about the MoU being signed by 33 Corps with private builders to build educational institutions on land that was sensitive in terms of security.
The tribunal had on Friday allowed Gen. Rath’s petition in which he had alleged that Gen. V.K. Singh had given “undue importance” to the case as he had a “serious grudge” against the then military secretary, Lt. Gen. Avdesh Prakash, whom he held responsible for obtaining a commitment from him on the issue of his date of birth that stood in the way of the extension of his tenure as Chief of Army Staff.
Meanwhile, reacting to the judgment, Gen. Rath said the verdict has vindicated his stand that he had done nothing wrong in the alleged scam. “I have suffered so much because of this for all these years. But the tribunal’s verdict has vindicated my stand,” Gen. Rath told agencies. Asked about the role of Gen. V.K. Singh in his case, he said, “I would not like to get personal in these matters but I want to say that no person should be victimised by senior officers and the Army should ensure that it does not happen in future.”
“From day one I have been telling the AFT and the Army authorities that I had done nothing wrong in the process but I am relieved that justice has been done,” he said.