The Army Chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor, letting off MS, Lt Gen Avdhesh Prakash, before his retirement without any punishment, is a known fact. It was well understood that the MS would be let off with something like an explanation on paper, followed by perhaps a severe displeasure.
If MS was taken high-handedly, he would have certainly got the Chief too in deep shit, who along with the MS met the Maharaja of Jodhpur, for whatever reason and also his wife Keerti Kapoor as one of the trustees of the School Board.
According to a defence journalist, Chief has three options, which are to give recordable censure to the officer, which means no promotions for him in the next three years, or non-recordable censure; which actually means nothing , just a letter of displeasure, or a dismissal from service which has to be brought through the President of India's office, via MoD, after invoking the clause of the President's displeasure which freezes the officer's pensionary benefits etc----this was also the case in former Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat's case. Adm Bhagwat got administrative action as dismissal as displeasure of the President, which affected his pension, which he got restored after going to the Supreme Court.
We all have to wait till the MS replies and see how convincing his reply is and how much is the Chief convinced, but by the time all this happens the MS retires !! Lt Gen Rath faces court martial and the other two also have to reply to their show-causes!!
Close to the end of his tenure, General Kapoor is under a cloud after failing to act decisively in a succession of scandals: from dubious procurements during his command in Udhampur, to the recent land scam allegedly involving his close affiliate. While investigating those unsparingly, the MoD owes support to a respected institution — the Chief of Army Staff — when it is under gratuitous media attack.
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