Top general faces land grab slur: Northern Command chief got 12 acres after making false claims

By SANDEEP UNNITHAN and ROHIT PARIHAR
PUBLISHED: 23:24 GMT, 26 January 2013 | UPDATED: 23:24 GMT, 26 January 2013
Lieutenant General KT Parnaik said the situation was not a land grab but a mistake
Lieutenant General KT Parnaik said the situation was not a land grab but a mistake
A top army commander allegedly falsified his residential address to claim free land from the Rajasthan government. 
Documents available with India Today show that Lt General Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik, who currently heads the Udhampur-based Northern Command, incorrectly indicated Rajasthan as his state of domicile to obtain 25 bighas of agricultural land (roughly 12 acres) in Mohangarh village, Jaisalmer. 
He received the land for being awarded a Yudh Seva Medal (YSM) for commanding a brigade during Operation Parakram in 2002. In 2009, however, he furnished a false address in Jaipur to take possession of the land long after his family had moved out of the state. 
Lt-Gen Parnaik told India Today that he had entered the wrong address "by mistake". 
"It was a mistake and it stayed there. The pro forma of the application was such that I had to state that my family lived there; I could not say they used to live there," he said. 
"This statement was not made to fool or defraud anyone," he added. 
General Parnaik said he was a domicile of the state and that army records mentioned Chittorgarh as his residence. He shifted to House No 3/KHA/6 Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur, in 1984. He was a domicile of Rajasthan when he entered service in 1972 and when he received the YSM in 2003, he said. 
Top army officials contacted by Mail Today said they were unable to comment on the case because they were not informed of the nature of the controversy. 
House that
The documents detailing the land grant were obtained from the state government under the RTI Act by a deceased soldier's family. 
Subedar Major (retired) Rajendra Singh Shekhawat died after suffering a brain stroke in a military hospital in Delhi on July 2, 2012. 
His family alleges that he was harassed after his retirement in March 31, 2012 for speaking out about the land allotment. 
The soldier belonged to Lt-Gen Parnaik's Rajputana Rifles regiment. 
The army denies the allegation and says the soldier was placed under an inquiry in the Delhi area for falsifying his service records. 
The documents, obtained by Shekhawat's son Pushpendra Singh, show extensive correspondence between Lt-General Parnaik and the state government between 2006-10, when he applied for and finally got the plot. 
General Parnaik mentioned his residential address as 3/KHA/6 (KHA as in the Hindi syllable 'kh') Jawahar Nagar. This was a single-storeyed house owned by his father since the late 1970s when the township, some 4km away from the city centre, was created by the state government. 
There was only one catch. Lt-Gen Parnaik's father T.S. Parnaik had sold the house in December 2002 to a businessman, Rakesh Bhatia. Lt- Gen Parnaik's letter merely said he had resided in the house before he got the award in 2003. But later, evidently to hold on to the allotment, Parnaik insisted he and his family continued to live there. 
On September 1, 2009, the Rajasthan colonisation department in Bikaner wrote to General Parnaik telling him to select a plot of agricultural land. The letter was addressed to him in 3/KHA/6 Jawahar Nagar. 

Twist in the tale 

On September 30, 2009, less than a month later, however, came a very subtle twist in the plot. Lt- Gen Parnaik submitted a sworn and signed affidavit to the state government where he insisted he and his family lived in 3/KA/6 (Hindi syllable 'ka') Jawahar Nagar. He mentioned this address three times in the one-page affidavit to claim ownership of this property and to say that he and his family members did not own any other property in the state. 
The title deed of the land finally issued to Parnaik on March 2010 mentioning his address as 3/KA/6. House No 3/KA/6 is also located in the Jawahar Nagar area, about 200 mt away from 3/KHA/6 which Parnaik's father owned. 
The two-storeyed house is, however, owned by Dharam Chand Gera, who runs a small transport company. Gera bought the plot from the government in 1974. 
Gera was bemused when he saw the copy of the general's affidavit with his address on it. "I've never met or spoken with him," he said. 
Rakesh Bhatia, 46, a small businessman, says he bought the single-storeyed house from T. S. Parnaik in 2002. 
"The family moved to Pune and settled there. I've never met his son Lt General Parnaik; I only saw him on TV recently during the beheading controversy," he said. 
A revenue department official said they went by the sworn affidavit provided by General Parnaik to grant him the land. 
Disputed territory: House number 3/K/6 Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur, which Lt Gen Parnaik listed as his own address
Disputed territory: House number 3/K/6 Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur, which Lt Gen Parnaik listed as his own address