An Indian Army court is to sentence on June 7 a soldier charged with killing three of his seniors but is likely to take a lenient view in view of the "mitigating circumstances" of the case
NEW DELHI/JAMMU: An Indian Army court is to sentence on June 7 a soldier charged with killing three of his seniors but is likely to take a lenient view in view of the "mitigating circumstances" of the case, officials said.
"The proceedings are complete and the court has been convened for July 7 to deliver its verdict," an officer of the Indian Army's Northern Command in Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, under whose jurisdiction the court martial was conducted, told.
The soldier, who has not been named due to the sensitive nature of the case, is accused of shooting dead Havildar Bhal Singh, Havildar Gani Galaiya and Naik Nikhil Kumar after they allegedly made sexual advances to him.
"In view of these circumstances, the court is likely to take a lenient view but will certainly not let him off lightly," an army officer in New Delhi said.
In two verdicts delivered earlier this year, army courts separately sentenced two soldiers to death for killing their seniors. These sentences will now travel up the chain of command for Defence Minister A.K. Antony before they are confirmed.
The soldier in the present case was posted with the Signals Regiment of the 27 Mountain Division that is deployed in Rajouri in Jammu. After the shootings Oct 21, 2006, he attempted to commit suicide but was immediately arrested and put in an army jail.
The 27 Division then convened a court martial that officers said held 25 sittings before concluding its proceedings.
Once the verdict is delivered, it will travel for confirmation to the division commander, to the commander of 16 Corps under which it operates and then to the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Northern Command. At each of these stages, the sentence could be enhanced or reduced.
The file will then travel to the army chief, Gen. J.J. Singh, and finally to Antony.
Each of these stages could take up to a month. Thus, even if the file arrives in Singh's office before he retires in September, he is likely to leave the decision to his successor, an officer said.
This would mean that Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapoor, currently the Indian Army vice chief and who is likely to succeed Singh, would then have to process the file before it travels to the defence minister. Kapoor headed the Northern Command when the shooting occurred.
After the minister signs the file, the soldier would be handed over to the police force of his home state and would have the right to challenge the verdict in the high court and the Supreme Court. If the extreme death penalty is awarded, the soldier would also have the option of appealing to the president, who is the supreme commander of the armed forces.
Alarmed by the large number of fratricides and suicides in recent years, the Indian Army to begin testing the mental toughness of soldiers before they are recruited.
"Through the new tests (to be conducted from October), we will be able to gauge the personality of a recruit, his ability to grasp a given situation, and the ratio of positive to negative traits," says Manas Kumar Mandal, who heads the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR).
The tests are among a series of measures the DIPR had suggested after Defence Minister Antony tasked it with recommending steps to prevent fratricides and suicides.
Among the other measures the army has already introduced are conducting yoga and stress-management classes for sodiers, particularly those posted on counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and the northeast.
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