Army chief Deepak Kapoor defends action against former military secretary

Defending his move to initiate disciplinary action against former military secretary Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash in the Sukhna land scam, army chief general Deepak Kapoor said it was the "best course of action" he took after analysing the facts of the case and on the advice of defence minister AK Antony.

"I felt this is the best course of action based on the kind of facts after analysing the case and on the advice of defence minister AK Antony (in the Sukna land scam)," Kapoor told Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.

The army chief said that the aspect of legal recourse in the case was not yet complete as only the court of inquiry was over and the other processes will have to be completed.

"The summary of evidence will happen. That is when the commanding officer will look at facts and decide on what is to be done. There is a misunderstanding among the public that if an officer is court martialled, he is headed for the gallows. It is not right. Many officers have been acquitted by court martials before," he said.

Asked about Prakash challenging the disciplinary action in the Armed Forces Tribunal, he said the Tribunal could decide on the matter after hearing both the sides and refused to comment more on it.

Admitting that the Sukna and scam has dented the image of the army, Kapoor blamed the media for sensationalising the case without understanding the nuances of military law. "Yes, to an extent the case has embarrassed the army. The army has taken steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur.

Media has been sensationalising the case. If it had been better informed about how the military system of law works, they would have been better prepared to handle it a lot more in a positive way," General Deepak Kapoor said.

Stating that the media "over-reacted" in the case, the army chief said to an extent reportage amounted to character assassination. "If the reportage was based on totally informed knowledge, it would have been appropriate and then passing judgement without knowing the facts really amounts to character assassination," he said.

He said his decision to act against Avadesh Prakash should be fair and just adding it was the army which initiated action on its own and not an outside agency.

"The organisation is resilient, objective and is concerned about its image in the public eye. It was a self correcting action taken by the army itself," he said. Asked whether he had consulted the defence minister on all the actions he took during the course of the controversy, he said it was a process and a certain degree of interaction did take place.

"It will not be wise to assume that the action was taken in isolation. I have have to be fair, just and also look into the culpability of each individual officer. I can't put all of them in the same bracket," he added.

Asked if he was soft on Prakash since he was his principal staff officer, Kapoor said the former military secretary was only one of the PSOs among the eight he had. "One PSO is as dear or far away from me as the other." Kapoor said.

The Sukhna land scam involves the sale of a 71 acre land adjacent to Sukna military station in West Bengal for which the army had issued a no objection certificate to a private realtor.

An army probe had indicted Prakash along with Lt Gen PK Rath, Lr Gen Ramesh Halgali and Maj Gen PC Sen. While Rath was ordered to be court martialled, Kapoor took administrative action against the other three following which Antony advised Kapoor to initiate disciplinary action against Prakash also.