Lt General being probed for army land scam

A land scam is rocking army headquarters. Senior officers, including a lieutenant-general who was to take over as deputy chief of staff in Delhi, are being investigated for possibly abetting the procurement of army land, or land whose acquisition the army had to clear.

An obscure trust apparently made two startlingly similar attempts to corner huge chunks of land in West Bengal and Uttarakhand on the plea that it was setting up franchises of Mayo College of Ajmer. The college authorities have denied that they allowed any trust to set up franchisee schools.

In one case, Lt Gen PK Rath, who was in charge of a key army corps guarding the border with China, is among those being investigated. In another case, informal inquiries have begun against senior officers at a regimental centre in the Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand.

Since both efforts to corner land involved the same trust, intelligence sources believe that this would not have been possible without tacit support from the higher ups. Pending inquiry, the army’s Eastern Command has asked Lt Gen Rath to stay put in Kolkata. As a result, Rath is unlikely to take over as deputy chief of army staff in New Delhi on November 1 as scheduled.

The inquiry will look at whether forgery was involved in this attempt at land grab.  

The suspicion is that the corps command’s original decision to deny security clearance for the transfer of a 50-acre plot of land was negated with a forged document. The land, located just outside the army’s Sukhna headquarters, belonged to the West Bengal government but needed security clearance from the army. The forged document apparently gives clearance to the trust to buy the land.

Another Lt General, the chief of 4 Corps, Lt Gen KT Patnaik, is heading the inquiry, with two major-generals as members.

The private trust had told the army authorities that it was going to set up a franchised version of Mayo College. The Ajmer-based institution refuted the claim.

Informal inquiries are also underway in Uttarakhand, at the Kumaon regimental centre in Haldwani. The investigations are looking at a similar land deal, for the same trust, for setting up another Mayo College franchise. In this case, the land sought by the trust belonged to the army.