Army Major sentenced to 5 years’ RI, given dishonourable dismissal over sexual assault of minor girl in Delhi

The Major had been charged with two offences under Section 69 (civil offences) of the Army Act along with relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012.

The prosecution counsel, Colonel Mirza Aslam Beg (retd), argued before the court that the charges had been well proved and that the accused and his family were educated and knew the gravity of the crime which the accused had committed. He also argued that the accused was aware of the serious consequences which would follow on the commission of sexual offences.

The Major was residing at an accommodation for married officers in Delhi along with his wife when allegations surfaced regarding the sexual assault on the 11-year-old daughter of the domestic help. An official complaint against the Major was lodged with the Army authorities at the Station Headquarters Delhi Area, Delhi Cantonment, by the domestic help in January 2022.

Based on the complaint, a Court of Inquiry (COI) was ordered by the concerned Army authorities and the same was conducted by the HQ 715 (Independent) Air Defence Brigade with Colonel Satinder Khola as its Presiding Officer and Lt Col Vikas Khare of 917 Light Air Defence Regiment (Composite) Work Shop and Maj Seema Nayal of 406 Missile Regiment as its members. The COI was conducted from February 7-11, 2022 in New Delhi.

According to Advocate Anand Kumar, who represented the Major at the trial, there were inconsistencies in the case which have been ignored by the GCM.

“The incident is of January 12, 2022 but complaint was filed by the mother on January 24 at HQ Delhi Area. No explanation was given for the delay. The complaint copy was tampered with and bore no signature of any authority nor any stamp. The brother of the complainant who wrote the complaint was not examined nor her relatives to whom she had told about the incident were examined,” he said.

The advocate said the defence of the accused in the trial was that the COI and Summary of Evidence (SOE) were tampered with wherein the statements of the complainant, the survivor and her father were changed. “During trial all three also claimed that statements have been changed. Defence proved that COI and SOE have been tampered with and requested for summoning the officer recording SOE. But the court declined. Thus our case was prejudiced,” he said.

Colonel Rajesh Dhaiya, Deputy Commander of an infantry brigade, was the presiding officer of the GCM. Lt Col Aradhana of 507 ASC Battalion was its second senior member while another woman officer Maj Jasneet was the Judge Advocate.