M A I N   N E W S

No relief for Samba case petitioners
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 26
The 32-year-old “Samba spy case” that has been through many an emotional turn of events for the accused and their families, resulted in a major setback to eight of the indicted personnel of the Army today. The Armed Forces Tribunal dismissed their petitions saying similar pleas had already been rejected by respective high courts.

One of the petitions was also dismissed on the ground of delay in approaching the court for justice. In a detailed order, the Principal Bench of the AFT, headed by Justice SS Kulshreshtha and Lieut Gen SS Dhillon (retd), dismissed the petitions. The petitioners have the option of approaching the Supreme Court in appeal.

The petitions were transferred from the Delhi High Court to the AFT after the tribunal was set up last year. The Army, through its counsels, had pleaded that petitions of the applicants were rejected earlier by high courts.

Of the eight petitions in the tribunal, petitions of Captains Ranbir Singh Rathore, Sewa Ram Nangial and Ashok Rana and Gunners Banarsi Lal, Satpal Singh and Milkhi Ram were rejected as their petitions were dismissed by high courts earlier. The petition of Gunner Hari Singh was dismissed due to delay of 24 years in approaching the court as his General Court Martial was held in 1978 and he filed a petition in Delhi High Court in 2002. It all started when Gunners Sarwan Dass and Aya Singh were arrested, during the mid-1970’s. They revealed the names of others in the “spying racket”. Notably, Sarwan Dass, in a statement in 1994, claimed that he had falsely implicated officers and jawans, 50 in number, in the case under pressure from higher officers of that time.

A total of 42 personnel of 168 Brigade deployed along the Line-of-Control (LoC) in the Samba sector in Jammu and Kashmir were arrested on the basis of statements given by Sarwan Dass and Aya Singh.

Some of the cases are pending before the AFT and are at various stages of hearing. A few other cases are of personnel who have appealed in the Supreme Court.

The whole case was reopened after the Intelligence Bureau caught Sarwan Dass and Aya Singh on spying charges, however, they were not punished by the Army for espionage but for petty offences like being “absent without Leave”. Sarwan Dass is still alive and lives in his village near Jammu, whereas Aya Singh was reportedly shot dead by troops while trying to enter Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) by crossing the LoC in 1990.