New Delhi: Major General R K Hooda, currently additional director general of mechanised forces at the Army HQ in New Delhi, will now face a court of inquiry (CoI) for his alleged role in the Adarsh Housing society scam in Mumbai.
The Pune-based Southern Army Command has ordered the Cout of Inquiry against Maj-Gen Hooda, who was posted in Mumbai as the General-officer-Commanding, Maharashtra and Goa area from late-2007 to around July this year.
Apart from three former Service chiefs, including Generals N C Vij and Deepak Kapoor, and several other officers, Maj-Gen Hooda was one of the flat allottes in the illegal 31-storey building in the premium Coloba area.
The three-member CoI headed by a Lt-Gen, which will convene early next week, will probe the exact role played by Maj-Gen Hooda, who has been summoned to Pune, in the alleged conspiracy and how and on what basis did he get the membership in the Adarsh Society. The promotion of Maj-Gen Hooda has been put on hold since he was placed under a DV (disciplinary and vigilance) ban after the Adarsh controversy erupted.
The clearances for the 31-floor building in Colaba were taken on the emotive argument of providing flats to Kargil War heroes and their dependents but the majority of the flats were actually cornered by Maharashtra politicians, bureaucrats and senior defence officials.
The defence ministry has already ordered a comprehensive CBI inquiry into the Adarsh scam after examining reports from the Army, Navy and the DGDE (directorate general of defence estates), which held that the high-rise clearly violated security regulations in the vicinity of Navy's Western Command HQs.
Both defence minister A K Antony and Army chief General V K Singh have promised strict action against any serving officer who is found to be guilty in the scam. MoD has also said that it will give prompt permission to CBI to question any serving officer and will have no objection if they are prosecuted.
