Former Lt-Gen cashiered, jailed for procurement fraud

Lieutenant-General (retd) S K Sahni was on Friday sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment and was cashiered from service after he was found guilty of irregularities in procurement of rations for troops in Jammu & Kashmir.

A general court martial held at the 11 Corps headquarters in Jalandhar found the 65-year-old senior officer guilty of procuring substandard meat and other dry rations for troops deployed on the Siachen mountains and other high-altitude areas in 2005.

Then the director-general of supplies and transport, was held guilty under six of the nine charges framed against him.

Sahni is the first officer of lieutenant general rank to face a GCM post-retirement. He was already under "close arrest" (house arrest) for the last seven months and put under arrest by the Army on 31 July last year, barely a week before GCM proceedings began on 6 August. On Friday, the GCM began at 8.30 am and concluded after 7 in the evening.

Sahni retired in 2006, after putting in around 40 years of service. In this case, Army had invoked special provisions under the Army Act, according to which any retired officer can be called back for court martial proceedings for offences committed during his service tenure that had come to light before or after his superannuation.

The GCM found that while a department court of inquiry was ordered in procurement of contaminated whole masoor dal, its terms of reference were not fixed. The pulse was contaminated with "kesri peas" and "akar" - both banned under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act due to their poisonous nature. The court found him guilty under Section 63 of the Army Act.