Army clear it wants probe into Lance Naik Roy Mathew's death: Manohar Parrikar

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday said that the Indian Army too wants an investigation into the murder of Lance Naik Roy Mathew. The Army had said on Friday that the preliminary probe showed the jawan had committed suicide as he felt that he had let down his superiors.

"If I make any comment it may impact investigation. Army has made it clear that they also want investigation,"  Parrikar said.

"Preliminary investigations reveal suicide may be result of series of events which were triggered by media managing to video-graph the deceased by asking leading questions on his duty as a buddy without his knowledge. It's likely that guilt of letting down superiors/conveying false impression to unknown individual, led to extreme step. Identity of Army personnel in clipping was hidden. Hence, there is no question of enquiry being ordered against deceased," the statement said.

In the sting operation earlier, Roy allegedly appeared and exposed the system in which jawans were often subjected to tasks by officers including walking dogs and taking children to school. A troubled Roy had called his family after the sting operation was aired on the television, and had conveyed that his life was in danger, following which he mysteriously disappeared.

His decomposing body, indicating that he was dead for at least three days, was found in a barrack in Maharashtra's Deolali Cantonment late on Thursday.

The mortal remains of Mathew were laid to rest in Ezhukone, Kollam, on Sunday, after a fresh autopsy was conducted following insistence of his family, who raised doubts over this demise. 

Hundreds of people offered tributes to the soldier as the coffin draped in the Indian tricolour was kept for public homage. The funeral was held later at a local church.