Sanjha Morcha

Death of Army officer’s child: Bombay High Court quashes prosecution of 2 Lt Colonels

The Bombay High Court ruled that the officers cannot face criminal proceedings after being tried under the Army Act.

The Bombay High Court ruled that the officers cannot face criminal proceedings after being tried under the Army Act.T

the Bombay High Court ruled that the officers cannot face criminal proceedings after being tried under the Army Act. (File Photo)

The Mumbai High Court has quashed the prosecution sanction accorded by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) against two Army officers of the rank of Lt Colonel in an eight-year-old case of the death of an Army officer’s child.

The judgement by the division bench in Goa, uploaded in public domain on September 25, quashed the prosecution sanction, granted under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), to prosecute Lt Col Umesh Kanadikar and Lt Col Gurinder Singh Uppal of the Corps of Engineers. They were to face trial before a criminal court in Goa under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code, along with a few civilians.

The writ petitions filed by the two officers challenging their prosecution revolved around an incident on April 6, 2017, when a child aged four-and-a-half years, son of Lt Col Narendra R Taralkar and Surgeon Lt Commander Trishna Taralkar, fell from the 6th floor of the newly constructed Married Accommodation Project-II, at the naval officers’ accommodation in Goa.

The incident resulted in the filing of a case at the Vasco police station on the complaint filed by the headquarters of Goa naval area against Naresh Kumar Garg, chairman, and Pradeep Kumar Garg, managing director of NKG Infrastructure Ltd, New Delhi. They were accused of failure to take proper care and safety while constructing the said building, leading to the death of the minor boy falling from the sixth floor, along with the window grill, which was not properly fixed by screws to the wall.