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Journalism of Courage
Colonel S M Perumal,who was killed in an IED blast by suspected National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants near Tezpur on Monday morning,was not only a highly regarded doctor but also the legal brain of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS).
The physician,who had reached Tezpur on Sunday after attending a medical seminar in Bangalore and was driving to his unit located in Arunachal Pradesh when his vehicle was targeted,was also a trained lawyer and handling most legal cases related to the AFMS.
The decorated officer,who headed a field hospital in Congo in 2006 when he was deputed to the UN peacekeeping mission,had been promoted less than six months ago to command the 405 field ambulance unit based at Tenga. He was a very upright and straightforward person who was also very well qualified in law. Given his expertise in law,most legal cases pertaining to the Armed Forces Medical Services were being handled by him. He was part and parcel of the legal team, said a senior officer associated with Col Perumal.
While the doctor had penned several papers in the Armed Forces Medical Journal,his expertise in law had made him indispensable to the organisation. Officers associated with him said his daughter,Sadhana,was also studying law at the Army Law Institute in Mohali. He is survived by his wife and two children.
Senior officers recall his deft handling of the legal row over the change in uniforms of Military Nursing Service (MNS) personnel that had almost led to a mutiny by nurses in 2004.
Before his assignment in Arunachal Pradesh,the officer was posted at the Chennai Military Hospital where he set up a partnership between the AFMS and one of Indias leading eye hospitals,the Sankara Nethralaya.
The tie-up with the Sankara Nethralaya was highly beneficial for the armed services given the high number of accidents involving the eye. Several armed forces personnel and their dependants were treated free of cost as a result of the partnership, a senior officer said.
Col Perumal is the highest ranking medical officer of the armed forces who has died in a militant attack in recent times.
