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The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petition filed by Lieutenant General (retired) Avadesh Prakash challenging the Court of Inquiry ordered against him in the Sukna land scam case.
A bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and Mukundakam Sharma asked the retired army officer to submit himself to the inquiry to prove his innocence.
When senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi tried to point out certain alleged irregularities in the proceedings, the bench snubbed him, saying it would not dig into the matter at this stage as a lot of skeletons would tumble out.
"Once we start digging, many skeletons will be tumbling out," the bench said. However, the apex court said Prakash was at liberty to approach the court at a later stage, if he is aggrieved by the final outcome.
Prakash had approached the apex court challenging the order of the COI after the Armed Forces Tribunal directed a fresh Court of Inquiry giving him opportunity to cross-examine all the material witnesses. Rohatgi and Jyoti Singh, appearing for Prakash, had alleged it was a case where the trial has not taken place in a fair manner as witnesses were not examined in the presence of the aggrieved officer.
Prakash, who retired from the Army on January 31, had contended that the COI was bad in law as it was not in accordance with Army Rule 180, which requires that examination (recording of statements) of witnesses has to be done in the presence of the accused officer.
The AFT, which had given him partial relief of cross-examining the witnesses, had asked Prakash to report before the COI in Kolkata at the Army's Eastern Command headquarters.
The AFT had allowed Prakash to cross-examine six witnesses who had deposed against him in the COI in his absence. The six witnesses are Lieutenant General P K Rath, Lieutenant General Ramesh Halgali, Major General P C Sen, Colonel N K Dabas, Lieutenant Colonel Jiji Verghese and Naib Subedar Surjit Singh.
Prakash was indicted by an Army COI for his alleged role in issuing a 'No-objection Certificate' to a private realtor Dilip Agarwal, for building an educational institute on a 71-acre land adjacent to the Sukna military station in West Bengal. Prakash, along with Lieutenant General P K Rath, was facing a court martial in the case.
Two other senior army officers, Lieutenant General Ramesh Halgali and Major General P C Sen, are facing administrative action for their alleged roles in the case.