Army court awards capital punishment to jawan in JK

SRINAGAR: An army court has awarded death sentence to a jawan who had shot dead his senior officer at Nishat following an altercation last year, a defence spokesman said on Friday.

Sepoy KC Behra was awarded death sentence by the General Court Martial last week for killing his senior officer and company commander Lt Colonel Saket Saxena on October 31, 2006, the spokesman said.

He said the sentence was subject to confirmation by the chief of army staff and Central government.

It is perhaps for the first time that an army jawan has been given death sentence for killing an officer.

Although no one from the army was willing to comment on the quantum of sentence, it is widely believed that the jawan was given the severest punishment in order to arrest the trend of fratricide in armed forces.

Last year, security forces including the army, witnessed several fratricide incidents, in which distressed jawans shot dead their colleagues and officers, and also committed suicide.