Chandigarh, June 26
A General Court Martial has found Major V. K. Madhan of 2 Rajputana Rifles, guilty of two of the four charges levelled against him for dereliction of duty during the Kargil operations in 1999.
He has been awarded eight years loss of service for the purpose of promotion, eight years loss of service for the purpose of pension and a severe reprimand. The sentence is to be confirmed by the covering authority.
The GCM, presided by Col A. K. Chopra, has held Major Madhan guilty of counterfeiting a knee injury in order to avoid going into battle, and disobeying the lawful command of his commanding officer. The trial had commenced at N-Area here on December 2, 2000. The accused had been kept under close arrest since then.
The first charge is related to an act prejudicial to good order and military discipline under Section 63 of the Army Act. According to the charge sheet, Major Madhan had, on May 29, 1999, during the induction of 2 Rajputana Rifles at Dras, improperly stated to his Commanding Officer, Col M. B Ravindranath, that the situation ahead of Dras was grim and something had to be done to avoid going into that area.
The second and fourth charges, under Section 46 (b), related to malingering. Between June 3 and 13, and June 26 and 29, with an intent to avoiding taking part in the attack on Tololing and Three Pimples, respectively, counterfeited knee injury, the charge sheet stated.
The third charge, levelled under Section 41 (2) for wilful disobedience of lawful command, stated that at field on June 26, when ordered by the Commanding Officer to go to the Kajal outpost as the firebase commander, he refused to go.
While the court found him not guilty of the first two charges, he was convicted for the third and fourth charges. After the Judge Advocate, Major Mahender Yadav summed up the case, highlighting the prosecution and defence contentions and discussing the emerging evidence, it took about 40 minutes of deliberations amongst the five members for the court to arrive at its decision.
While the prosecution had contended that considering the substantive evidence which has been brought on record, the charges had been fully proved, the defence contended that
the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
The prosecution had examined six witnesses, including Lieut-Col Sandeep Kala (unit’s second-in-command), Col M. B. Ravindranath (unit’s commanding officer), Capt S. Basu (regimental medical officer), Col A. Kayastha (surgeon), Maj S. S. Bajaj (regimental officer) and Lieut-Col S. M. Bhatnagar (orthopaedic surgeon) in support of its case. The defence, besides cross-examining the prosecution witness, had summoned Nk Satbir (Madhan's sahayak) and Lieut-Col H. S. Rawat (surgeon).
As far as the first charge is concerned, there was no witness or material evidence to corroborate the charge. On the charges of malingering, the defence counsel, Major R. S. Randhawa (retd) had contended that while infirmity could be counterfeited, injury could not be counterfeited and only medical evidence should be admissible. He had further contended that Col A. Kayastha of the Field Surgical Centre deposed that a knee injury existed.
On the charge of disobedience, the defence counsel had maintained that besides the accused, two officers, Col Ravindranath and the unit’s second-in-command, Colonel Kala, were involved. He contended that Colonel Kala did not support the version that Colonel Ravindranath had commanded the accused to go to Kajal.
