Army chief orders ‘operation clean-up’ -A Tribune news:Veteran Prabhjot Singh Chhatwal PLS Retd.

Army chief orders ‘operation clean-up’
More than 20 senior officers guilty in various scams in the past four years.
Ajay Banerjee/Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 1.Virtually shaking up the Indian Army out of its self-imposed ‘silence’ on the issue of corruption within the services, the new Army chief, Gen VK Singh, today announced a ‘clean-up’ operation. “…We want to set our own culture right… improve the internal health of the organisation… the Army value system has to be different from the civil society”.
More than 20 senior officers (Brigadier or above) face charges of corruption or moral turpitude in the past three years or so. Some have been cashiered, others have been jailed, one is facing a CBI probe while a few escaped with a censure. General VK Singh, who started his tenure today, made it clear for what he stands for and how he will go about correcting the image of the world’s second largest Army.
In the past few years, senior officers have been held guilty by the Army Court of Inquiries for a liquor scam, a dry ration scam, a frozen meat scam, for accepting gratification for purchases and even for molesting a woman officer. These are apart from the much publicised and the latest Darjeeling land scam where four senior officers have been held blameworthy of having colluded with a private builder to issue a no-objection certificate.
It was General VK Singh, in his earlier capacity as GOC-in-C of the Eastern Command, who had ordered the inquiry into the Darjeeling land scam, which recommended the summary dismissal of the Military Secretary (MS) Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash. He, as MS, decided all transfers, postings and promotions of senior officers. A summary dismissal is one of the harshest punishments-the rank is stripped, the pension is stopped and the person does not qualify to be an ex-serviceman. Others facing various levels of action in the same case are Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali, Lt Gen PK Rath and Maj Gen P. Sen.
Another of the recent cases is of Maj Gen AK Lal, who was dismissed after having been found guilty of molesting a junior woman officer. The woman’s parents, based in Dehradun, had lodged a written complaint against the Major General to the then Army chief Gen JJ Singh.
In early 2007, the two Lieutenant Generals of the Army Service Corps (ASC), S.K. Dahiya and S.K. Sahni, were indicted in two separate cases involving irregularities in the procurement of frozen meat for troops posted in Ladakh and discrepancies in procurement of dry rations, respectively. In the latter case, the CoI recommended disciplinary action against Brig SK Handa and Brig PS Gill. The officers have appealed and matter is now pending before a civil court.
Last year two Major Generals of the Army Ordnance Corps, Anand Swaroop and SP Sinha, faced separate charges of irregularities in the purchase of stores. The two were in running for the top post of DG Ordnance Services (DGOS) at Army HQ. In 2007, the CBI booked Maj Gen Anand Kapoor for possessing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 5 crore.
Another notable case was of Gur Iqbal Singh Multani, a Major General, who was found guilty of attempting to smuggle large quantities of defence liquor to his hometown. He was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment, stripped of his rank and dismissed from service by a military court.