SOCIETY EXPECTS ARMY PERSONNEL TO OBEY THE LAW AND RESPECT IT, SAYS THE AFT
CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh bench of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has dismissed the bail applications of four soldiers, who were dismissed from the service and sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) for mutiny in Nyoma in 2012.
In May 2012, officers and jawans of 226 Field Regiment had clashed at Nyoma near Leh following a rape attempt on an officer’s wife. The officers had to flee after jawans attacked them. The unit was on field firing exercise at Nyoma.After the mutiny, the officers involved had pleaded guilty and were let off with forfeiture of services while a number of jawans faced trial and suffered imprisonment and dismissal.
Naseer Mohammed, D Munivel, Anuj Kumar and Bikramjit Singh were among the mob of soldiers who hurled stones at officers. Their trial along with 11 others ended last year and the sentence was promulgated on November 30, 2015.
Commanding Officer Col Prasad Kadam had sustained five fractures on the vital parts of his body.
The court of inquiry had indicted over 150 soldiers and four officers. It had also pointed out failure of command and control.
While dismissing the bail applications of Naseer, Munivel, Anuj Kumar and Bikramjit Singh, the bench comprising Justice Surinder Singh Thakur and Lt Gen DS Sidhu (retd) said, “… the society expects that army personnel should obey the law and respect it…in fact no army personnel can make an attempt to create a concavity in the stem of the army stream. It is absolutely impressible. If someone does anything against the army discipline of such a nature then showing misplaced sympathy would create a chaos, thus it cannot be lightly viewed.”
The bench added, “Therefore, tested on the aforesaid judicial parameters and also on going through the record of the respondents produced before us and returned after perusal, in our considered opinion at this stage the sentence cannot be suspended not the bail can be granted.”