A general court martial has sentenced a sepoy to death for killing his officer last October.
NEW DELHI: A general court martial has sentenced a sepoy to death for killing his officer last October. The verdict, pronounced last week, is at least the fourth case in recent times of a soldier being given capital punishment by a court martial.
The judgment is seen as an indication of the fate that awaits some two dozen soldiers currently facing courts martial for killing colleagues.
Over 40 cases of ‘fragging’ — the act of slaying fellow soldiers — have been reported in the past four years from across India. More than 30 soldiers were killed in such incidents in 2006 alone. No soldier, however, has been executed in the recent past.
Sepoy KC Behra shot Lieutenant-Colonel Saket Saxena of the 28 Rashtriya Rifles on October 31 last year on the outskirts of Srinagar. The speed with which the court-martial proceedings were wrapped up is indicative of the tough stand the army has taken on fragging, a source in the force said.
“The judgment was pronounced after holding proceedings of court martial,” said Colonel Manjinder Singh, colonel, general staff (IW), 15 Corps. “The sentence is, however, subject to the confirmation of higher authorities.”
The decision of the court martial, headed by a colonel, will be sent to the army’s Northern Command headquarters, and, after processing, to army headquarters in Delhi for final approval.
Once the army chief confirms the sentence, Behra will be handed over to the civil administration for execution.
The accused can move civilian courts for redress. He can also approach the President for clemency. “He has several legal options,” Col Singh said.
Col Saxena’s family hailed the judgment. “God is great. Justice has prevailed,” said Brigadier (retd) Virender Saxena, the slain man’s father. “He killed my son and law has decided his fate.”
Sources said the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) branch has “impressed upon” the courts handling such cases the need for “speedy trial” and “exemplary punishment”. The JAG has also counselled courts to bear in mind that “weapons issued to soldiers are not to be turned against fellow soldiers, but must be used only for personal safety and against militants”.
These parameters could be applied in most of cases of fragging, sources said. Thus, the possibility of capital punishment being handed to the accused soldiers is “extremely high”.
“Stern punishment would send a strong signal to the rest of the army that you cannot get away with such indiscipline,” a senior officer said.
The army has handed death sentences to soldiers in 1990, 2000, and 2005. Sepoy DN Rai of the Corps of Signals was sentenced to death in 1990 for killing a colleague. Havildar Surinder Singh of the Jat Regiment was sentenced to death in 2000; and in 2005, Lance-Havildar Jagtar Singh was given capital punishment for killing a colleague in Jammu and Kashmir.
The death penalty has been awarded to Behra at a time when a detailed report on fragging by the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR) is being studied by the government. The defence ministry recently sent the report to army headquarters, urging it to launch a comprehensive initiative to deal with the problem.
Sources said the DIPR study speaks of a growing gap between officers and soldiers, long engagement in high-stress environments such as Kashmir, and the growing pressures from nuclear families.
With Ishfaq-ul-Hassan in Srinagar
Stress: The killer within
Some fragging incidents triggered by stress in J&K in 2006:
January 25: Four CRPF jawans were killed when a soldier fired indiscriminately in a camp in Firdous cinema, Hawal
March 5: Soldier of the Rajput Regiment kills four colleagues before shooting himself at Miran Sahib Camp in Jammu
April 3: Three CRPF soldiers are killed when a jawan opens fire at Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s residence in Jammu
June 16: Lieutenant Sushmita Chakraborty shoots herself in Udhampur
September 14: Soldier kills major in a Rajouri camp
September 17: Soldier kills junior commissioned officer, jawan in Tangdar
October 21: Jawan kills three colleagues and injures two in Nariyan camp, Rajouri. His suicide attempt fails
October 23: Jawan kills two colleagues in Rajouri, then commits suicide
October 27: Jawan shoots himself in Poonch
October 29: Sepoy kills immediate superior Havaldar Padmarajan in Northern Command headquarters, Udhampur
October 31: Jawan kills lieutenant-colonel at camp in Dhara, Harwan
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