Army probes molestation charge against Lt Gen

The Army began a probe after Col C P S Pasricha,who is the Technical Secretary to Lt Gen Nanda,and his wife filed separate complaints. In the first complaint,made by Pasricha to Army Chief General V K Singh,the officer alleged that Nanda had entered his hotel room in Tel Aviv to ask for a technical paper,and tried to get intimate with his wife. Pasricha said that following the incident,he had escorted his senior officer back to his room.

The second complaint was made by Pasricha’s wife to the Army Chief’s wife,Bharti Singh. Mrs Pasricha alleged that Nanda had molested her in the hotel room.

Nanda has denied the charges. He has said that he did walk up to the Pasrichas’ door to get some document but never actually entered the room.

Nanda has alleged that Pasricha was busy with his wife most of the time on the tour,and had neglected his official duties. Nanda’s wife,who accompanied him to Israel,has come out strongly in her husband’s defence,saying “no such incident ever happened”.

The Army has noted the fact that Pasricha and his wife filed no complaint immediately after the alleged incident took place in Israel. On the contrary,investigations have revealed that the couples went together to Egypt on vacation after their Israel trip.

Pasricha has told investigators that he discussed the matter with his wife on a beach in Israel,and decided not to raise the issue as it would have sullied the image of the Army in a foreign country. He has said that his wife and he decided to go to Egypt with Nanda because he had already invested a lot of money in the holiday.

Investigators asked Nanda why he did not initiate action against Pasricha if his work was not up to the mark in Israel. To this,Nanda said he had removed Pasricha from the post of Technical Secretary soon after returning to India. Surprisingly however,there is no evidence of Nanda’s displeasure with the junior officer in the Army’s records.

The complaints against Nanda were filed only after Pasricha was posted out to Bhopal,which falls under the Army’s Central Command,last month.