Soldier gets lifer for fratricide

NEW DELHI: A soldier has been sentenced to life imprisonment by an army court martial for shooting to death his three senior colleagues in Jammu and Kashmir in October last year.

But, the court, for the first time, has held that the motive for fratricide was "grave provocation" as the three army personnel shot dead had shown continued "deviant factual behaviour" towards the accused, an army official said.

The signalman, who was not named, was just a month-old recruit when he turned his assault carbine on two hawaldars, including his platoon hawaldar and a clerk Lance Naik, on Oct 21 last year.

The three died on the spot after which the signalman turned his carbine on himself.

However, he was overpowered by two other colleagues, who sustained injuries in the process, the official said.

The court martial proceedings, held in Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur, while holding the signalman guilty of shooting his colleagues observed the act was committed under "grave provocation which undermined the soldier's self-esteem and self-holding".

The court said the act of shooting came as the soldier was subjected to "continued deviant factual behaviour and assault by the deceived," he said.

This is the third case of fratricide in which judgement has been pronounced by army court martial on fast-track basis in the past one month.

In earlier two cases, the court martial had pronounced death sentence on two soldiers for killing their seniors in cold blood.

A high-powered committee, set up by Defence Minister A K Antony to probe hundreds of fratricide cases in the army since 2001, in its report submitted to the government has cautioned that in most of the cases of fragging, perceived harassment appears to be the root cause.

The committee in its recommendations has said that army postings in counter-insurgency operations should be time-bound and there was a need for officers to strike good rapport with the personnel working under them.