Army chief partially deaf, can't make out words

New Delhi, Jan 20: Amidst allegation of turning a deaf ear to the accusation against Lt. General Awadesh Prakash in the Sukhna Land scam, it turned out that the Army chief General Deepak Kapoor is actually partially deaf.

It has come to light that General Kapoor suffers from acute deafness following exposure to loud noise of artillery guns during a demonstration on anti-terror operation in US in Jul 2009.

Kapoor came to know about his condition after undergoing an examination at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in Nov 2009 as he experienced difficulty in hearing words.

“He was closely exposed to loud noise in the form of small weapons firing and gun firing during a counter-terrorism demo by US soldiers. The general officer also fired some of the weapons in field firing range. Since then he (has) developed acute deafness in the left ear. He was unable to discriminate (between) spoken words," The doctor"s certificate, issued on Nov 23, 2009 said.

According to army sources, the Army chief has been placed in low medical category, Medical Category H 2,under which he is entitled to get 20 percent extra pension after his retirement in Mar 2010.

Sources said that the disability has made Kapoor the first army chief to be put under H 2 category while still in office.

OneIndia News