Assault on Commanding Officer: AFT junks appeal of convicted jawan

The jawan had challenged his conviction on the grounds that there were contradictions and discrepancies in the deposition of witnesses in the court martial.

THE ARMED Forces Tribunal (AFT) has upheld the conviction of a jawan for assaulting his Commanding Officer in Jammu and Kashmir and dismissed his appeal against his sentence of eight years’ RI and dismissal from service. Sepoy M Masilan was tried by a Summary General Courts Martial (SGCM) in 2007 under Section 40 (a) of the Army Act and Section 34 of the Ranbir Penal Code along with two co-accused. The jawan belonged to the Corps of Military Intelligence and was posted with the Field Security Section of the Counter Insurgency Force (Kilo) in Kupwara when he physically assaulted his Commanding Officer (CO), Col V S Yadava.

The jawan had challenged his conviction on the grounds that there were contradictions and discrepancies in the deposition of witnesses in the court martial and since there was no continuity in the chain of events, and due to lack of corroboration, the criminal case did not stand.

The counsel for the jawan had contended that the deposition of witnesses showed that the accused was not even present at the place of occurrence of the incident and that he was present at a different place doing guard duty. The counsel outlines the fact that this aspect of differing evidence had not been clarified in the trail by the Judge Advocate general (JAG) and that it was not clear how the court martial came to the conclusion that the accused was guilty.

However, the AFT bench was of the opinion that the evidence given by the Commanding Officer about the assault on him, coupled by the injuries suffered by him, showed that there was criminal force which was used against him by all the accused personnel. It also noted that immediately after he was physically assaulted, the Colonel went to the General Officer (Commanding) of the Force and met three other officers who found that he was in a dishevelled state and that there was an injury on his nose.

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