Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 14

About 24 years after an incident of alleged extra-judicial killing took place in Manipur, a Major General and two Colonels are among seven Army personnel who have been awarded life imprisonment by a general court martial (GCM) for their alleged acts of omission and commission, it is learnt.

In its verdict pronounced on Saturday, the GCM has also ordered that the three officers be cashiered (dishonourable discharge with loss of service benefits) from service, while the other ranks are to be dismissed, sources said.

The GCM’s findings and sentence are subject to confirmation by higher authorities, in this case Chief of the Army Staff. The accused in the case, Maj Gen AK Lal, Col Thomas Mathew and Col RS Sibiren, JCOs Jagdeo Singh and Dalip Singh and NCOs Albindar Singh and Shivendar Singh had maintained that they were not guilty of the charges levelled against them.  They have a right to petition the convening authority against the GCM’s sentence and thereafter, depending upon the convening authority’s directions, approach the Armed Forces Tribunal for bail and associated reliefs.

A joint trial had been convened for the accused on the orders of the General Officer Commanding, 3 Corps, Dimapur, which began at Dinjan in Assam in late July.

Five charges under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 69 of the Army Act, for murder and criminal conspiracy have been levelled against them, sources said  They have been attached to 2 Mountain Division at Dinjan for disciplinary proceedings.

The Maj Gen was, at that time, the commanding officer of a Punjab battalion deployed in anti-insurgency operations in Manipur and one of the Colonels was a company commander as a Captain.

The Maj Gen, incidentally, was dismissed from service by a GCM in 2008 for sexual misconduct with a woman officer, sources revealed. He has appealed against the order in the Armed Forces Tribunal. While the two Colonels are still serving, the other jawans have retired.

Hearings are also underway in the apex court over allegations of a large number of fake encounters by the Army and police in Manipur over the past few years.

4 civilians died in 1994

• In 1994, four civilians were picked up for interrogation and three days later, police were informed they had been killed in an encounter after they attacked Armymen
• Civilian organisations took up the issue and matter finally reached SC
• Apex court directed CBI to probe, following which a fresh FIR was registered by its Kolkata office