Chandigarh, July 15
A woman Army officer posted at Kalka, near here, has complained of physical and mental harassment at the hands of three senior officers of her unit. The Army, on the other hand, has denied the allegations.
Captain Poonam Kaur, who has been in the Army for three years and is serving with an ASC battalion at Kalka since October, has blamed the battalion’s commanding officer, the second-in-command and the adjutant for harassing her.
She has also alleged that she has been placed under house arrest in her quarters and is not being allowed to move out. Her mother, Hardev Kaur, who reached Kalka from Jalandhar claimed that she and her son were forced by the Army to leave her daughter’s house this morning.
On July 13, she had put in a request for a personal interview with the major general heading the Army Service Corps branch at Headquarters Western Command, Chandimandir, to highlight her grievances.
A spokesperson for Western Command said that on June 30, the officer was ordered to move to Pathankot for commanding one of the detachments of the unit located there. Citing personal reasons, she requested that her move be delayed till July 11.
Again when she was instructed to move on July 11, she requested that she be permitted to leave on July 12. However, on July 12 Capt Poonam refused to move to Pathankot, thereby disobeying legitimate orders.
While denying that the officer had been placed under house arrest, the spokesperson said that her request for interview with the major general was granted, but when she was asked to give her grievance in writing, she refused and returned to her unit.
The major general visited the battalion at Kalka today to meet the Commanding Officer and Captain Poonam, but she refused to come out of her quarters. Captain Poonam claimed that she was alone at that time and under intense pressure and wanted to meet the senior officer only in the presence of her relatives. Her mother claimed that it was only after the major general left that she was allowed to return to her daughter’s house.
The spokesperson claimed that during her last posting at Misamari in Assam, Captain Poonam had indulged in similar activities. She had refused to carry out her assigned duties and when questioned had alleged “mental harassment”. These were inquired into and disciplinary action was contemplated. Keeping in view her young age and the pleadings of her mother, she was let off. However her "mental weakness" was recorded in her profile.
There have been several complaints from women officers of sexual harassment. Recently, Capt Neha Rawat had raised allegations against a major general in Leh, who is now facing a court martial.
An officer in the Judge Advocate General’s department, now posted in Chandimandir, had blamed her immediate superior on similar grounds. Two officers, including the commanding officer of a unit in Jalandhar, faced court martial after a woman officer from the same unit alleged sexual assault.
