Army chief orders court martial of Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash

Military secretary Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash will face court martial proceedings in the Sukna land scam following intervention of defence minister AK Antony, who overturned army chief General Deepak Kapoor's decision on administrative action against the top officer.The court martial of Prakash was today ordered by Kapoor, making him the most senior three-star general in the army to ever face such action.The army chief's decision comes two days ahead of Prakash's retirement from military service on January 31. "The army chief has ordered disciplinary action against Lt Gen Prakash, who will face a court martial in the Sukna land scam. The chief has stuck to the advice from Antony in the case," defence ministry sources said here.    Prakash, who is considered close to Kapoor on account ofbeing one of his eight aides, was found culpable in the Suknaland scam along with the then 33 Corps Commander Lt Gen P KRath, his chief of staff Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali and the thenBrigadier Administration Maj Gen PC Sen.After the court of inquiry indicted all the general-officers in the case, eastern army commander Lt Gen VK Singh, who is the army chief-designate, had recommended "termination of service" of Prakash and administrative action against the other officers.

However, Kapoor chose to order court martial of Rath, and issued show-cause notice to others for administrative action, prompting Antony to ask why the officers, found culpable by the probe for the same offense under Army Act, were meted out different punishments and "advised" disciplinary action against Prakash too.