03 June,2010 04:43 PM IST | | Agencies
In a huge embarrassment for the army, a Lt General has been accused of sexual misconduct by the wife of a junior colleague, prompting the army to extract his resignation.
Fifty-nine-year-old AK Nanda, Engineer-in-Chief, became the senior most army officer to be removed in such an unceremonious manner. Nanda, who had one year more left in his service, was asked to put in his papers by Army Chief Gen VK Singh after a complaint by the wife of his technical secretary that he had molested her during a visit to Israel last month, army sources said on Thursday.
Nanda and his team had gone to Israel along with their families on an official trip during which he is alleged to have misbehaved with the wife of the Colonel-rank officer, the sources said.
The woman had complained to the Army Chief's wife Bharti Singh, the President of the Army Wives Welfare Association, who promptly put it up before Gen Singh. An inquiry was immediately ordered into the incident after which the Army Chief told Nanda last week to resign, the sources said.
Nanda had taken over as Engineer-in-Chief about a year ago. He had earlier served as the Director General of the Border Roads Organisation. Nanda's technical secretary, who had expressed his displeasure and unwillingness to work under Nanda, has been posted to Bhopal. A new technical secretary, Col Sanjeev Dalal, has taken over the job.
When Nanda's office was contacted, his staff, including Dalal, refused to speak on the matter. Nanda was not available for comments.
When Gen Singh took over as the Army Chief on March 31, he had asserted that any there would be no compromise with maintaining the image of the force and its "core values, ethos, and tradition will receive due attention".
In an earlier case, allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against Major General AK Lal by a woman army officer. An Army court martial held in Bhatinda in Punjab had ordered his dismissal two years ago. Lal was commanding 3 Infantry Division in Ladakh when the charges came up. Maj Gen Lal and his family have all along refuted these charges.
Another case of sexual taint on the armed forces came to light recently when there were allegations that Naval Commodore Sukhjinder Singh was involved in a relationship with a Russian woman when he was posted there between 2006 and 2008. He was in-charge of Gorshkov aircraft carrier refit programme.
The controversy involving Nanda also comes at a time when the Army had a loss of face over the involvement of three Lt Generals and a Major General in the Sukna land scam.
Former Military Secretary Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash and former Corps commander at Sukna Lt Gen PK Rath are facing a court martial in the case, while the latter's then deputy Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali and administrative head Maj Gen PC Sen are facing administrative action.
