Chandigarh, July 20
While action against civilians involved in the sensational Tehelka expose, which rocked the nation over five years ago continues to move at a snail’s pace, the Army has brought its share of disciplinary proceedings to an end, with Chief of the Army Staff confirming the sentence awarded by a court martial to Brig Iqbal Singh.
Sources at Army Headquarters revealed that the sentence of cashiering and two years rigorous imprisonment awarded to Brig Iqbal Singh was confirmed this week and he has been sent to a civilian jail in Patiala. He had been found guilty of accepting of money, enjoying the hospitality of wine and a call-girl and violating provisions pertaining to contact with foreign nationals
Brigadier Iqbal was the last of the officers involved in the scam whose case was still pending before Army Headquarters. He was convicted by a general court martial in October last year. Pending confirmation of the sentence by the Army Chief, he was lodged in the officers’ mess of a rocket regiment in Chandimandir.
Two other officers involved in the scam faced trial by court martial on similar charges of professional impropriety. Maj-Gen P.S.K. Choudhary’s sentence of cashiering and one year’s rigorous imprisonment was confirmed by the Chief a few months ago, but this was offset against period spent in custody during trial and he did not go to civil prison. Colonel Anil Sehgal, who was awarded four years rigorous imprisonment, is serving time in Tihar Jail in Delhi.
Six officers were held blameworthy by a court of inquiry, ordered by the Army after video tapes featuring senior army officers along with top politicians and bureaucrats demanding and accepting bribes from operatives of news portal tehelka.com posing as arms dealers were made public. Administrative action, ranging from reprimand to dismissal form service was initiated against the other three officers..
Among those who featured in the tapes was BJP ex-president Bangaru Lakshman, against whom a charge sheet was finally filed by the CBI two days ago. The CBI has also registered cases against several other politicians and defence ministry bureaucrats.
This is the first charge sheet to be filed by the CBI. Since investigations by the CBI are still continuing and trials in civilian courts, if any, are yet to commence, the entire process of ensuring justice is expected to take quite some time.
