New Delhi:
Terming the Sukhna land scam allegedly involving a top Army officer as an "aberration", government has said it will not tolerate even a single instance of corruption in the armed forces.
"What happened in Sukhna and in some other cases are aberrations... Already, the Army has taken strong action. I do not want to say anything further... We cannot tolerate even a single instance of corruption," Defence Minister A K Antony said on the sidelines of an awards ceremony to honour the best tableaux of the Republic Day in New Delhi.
Antony's statement comes days after he asked Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor to initiate disciplinary action against Lt Gen Awadesh Prakash, Military Secretary in the Army, who has been indicted in the Sukhna land scam.
Disciplinary action could lead to a court martial against Lt Gen Prakash, who is in the dock in the scam along with two other Lieutenant Generals and a Major General.
The minister downplayed corruption in the Army saying, "Armed forces have a much better system of correcting things and punishing the guilty."
The Defence Minister said, "You should compare what is going on around. Compared to many other institutions, armed forces and army are doing much better to take action and correct aberrations in the system."