New Delhi, June 04: The Indian Army was in the eye of an ugly storm on Thursday after one of its top officers was accused of molesting the wife of a subordinate.
The woman alleged that the army’s engineer- in- chief, Lieutenant General A. K. Nanda, had “ sexually misbehaved” with her on a recent trip to Israel.
Her husband, Colonel CPS Pasricha, was the technical secretary to Nanda.
Details of the allegation show that Nanda and Pasricha had visited Israel on an official trip in the first week of May and were accompanied by their spouses.
The alleged misbehaviour took place there.
According to some reports, after returning to Delhi, the woman complained to Bharti Singh, the wife of army chief General V. K. Singh and the ex- officio president of the Army Wives’ Welfare Association ( AWWA).
The AWWA president then informed her husband about the complaint, who decided to look into the matter.
Clarifying reports in certain sections of the media that Nanda had been sacked, the army said in a statement that neither has he been asked to put in his papers nor has he done the same on his own account.
“ There are some allegations.
Preliminary investigations show that there are number of loopholes in the account of allegations.
Further investigations are in progress,” the army said.
While Nanda was not available for comment, his wife Neerja Nanda told M AIL T ODAY : “ My husband has an impeccable record. He is upright and a highly disciplined man. He also holds a high moral standard.” “ I accompanied him on the trip in question. I was with him throughout. I vouch no such incident took place,” she added.
However, repeated attempts to contact Colonel Pasricha or his wife were futile.
Nanda, 59, has a year to go before retirement. Army sources said the allegation could be a ploy to tarnish his image in an environment of “ cut- throat competition among senior officials where the number of jobs is a handful”. Nanda is known as an officer of “ high reputation”. He was earlier heading the Border Roads Organisation.
Senior retired army officers said Nanda has been an upright and honest officer throughout his career. “ He has been a brilliant officer with a clean and a transparent financial record,” a former officer said, claiming that the charge against him was hard to believe.
“ Nanda has been a hard working and principled officer. He has reached the top position on his own merit,” another retired officer said.
But they pointed out that such incidents of “ misconduct” have happened in the past and in some cases, the officers concerned were asked to step down.
Former general officer commanding in chief, Eastern Command, Lt- Gen. ( retd) Arvind Sharma described Nanda as “ an outstanding officer of highest calibre”. “ He has been an officer of highest integrity. I am quite shocked to hear these allegations.
Such charges do not seem plausible based on my knowledge of the officer. It seems highly unlikely to me. However, whenever any such misconduct was proved in the past, the army has not allowed the guilty to go scot free in keeping with the ethos of the organisation,” Sharma said.
This unseemly controversy comes soon after Gen. Singh took over the army’s reins, promising that there would be “ no compromise with the image of the force and its core values, ethos, and tradition will receive utmost attention”.
—Agencies