A military court has convicted three majors for mercilessly thrashing a soldier in an incident that triggered a violent brawl between officers and jawans of an artillery unit in Nyoma sector of eastern Ladakh almost two years ago. The court martial, conducted in J&K, held the three officers guilty of assaulting the jawan after he allegedly tried to molest the wife of one of them. The presence of wives of the officers at the spot was also found to be in violation of rules since their 226 Field Artillery Regiment was near the Mahe firing ranges in Nyoma sector for practice drills in May 2012. The violent officer-jawan face-off in the artillery unit had left the unit commanding officer (CO), three majors and around 10 jawans injured in the brawl. The three majors have been awarded five years loss of seniority for the purpose of promotion, four years loss of service for the purpose of pension and a severe reprimand by the court martial. The verdict is subject to confirmation by higher authorities. In all, 168 personnel from the 226 Field Regiment, including the unit CO and four other officers were held blameworthy by an initial court of inquiry (COI) presided by Brigadier Ajay Talwar, Deputy General Officer Commanding 3 Infantry Division. Around 20 officers and over 100 other ranks are facing the music for the alarming breaches in discipline that took place in armoured and artillery units deployed in Nyoma, Samba, Patiala and Gurdaspur areas over the last two-three years. While the Army is justifiably proud of its apolitical, secular and disciplined ethos, its increasingly being felt that aspirational jawans are now no longer willing to suffer nonsense and humiliation at the hands of their officers. Incidentally, over 1,100 soldiers have committed suicide since 2003, with the yearly toll regularly hovering around the 100-mark every year, as reported earlier by TOI.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 04:54:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015