Jalandhar, March 24
The Indian Army completely washed off its hands over the provision of any amenity for the 38-year old tradition related to ceremonial bringing back of the soul of a dead sepoy from the China border to his native village in Kapurthala.

In his reply to a civil suit filed by Subedar Piara Singh, a local ex-serviceman, before civil judge G.S. Dhillon, Col S.S. Katariya, Commanding Officer, 7011 EME Battalion, has stated that the Army was simply providing due benefits to the next of kin (NoK) of Sepoy Harbhajan Singh who had drowned in a nullah way back in 1968.

This, however, is in complete contradiction to a previous written communication from another Army officer.

Lt Col M. Sabharwal from legal cell of the Army headquarters had on May 2005 replied to a legal notice from the complainant in which he had said that he had investigated on the matter and had found that in September 1999, Col V.K. Sharma, then a Commanding Officer, 23 Punjab, had received information from 21 Punjab asking for reception and transportation for Baba Harbhajan Singh from Jalandhar Cantonment to his residence.

“Subsequently, a jawan arrived at Jalandhar Cantonment in the second week of September 1999 and was dropped in Koke village by a transport going through that route to the unit’s operational location where it was deployed during Operation Vijay. Another jawan of 21 Punjab came to the Cantonment on November 10, 1999 in a civil vehicle. As per the information, both the jawans were on leave”, the then CO had said.

Further in his recent deposition before the court, Col Katariya has written that as per entitlement to the next of kin, pension to the tune of Rs 40 had been granted to dead sepoy’s mother way back in 1969. After revision his mother was now receiving Rs 2,550 as special family pension plus DA, he has said.

He has even refuted any news pertaining to subsequent promotions of the soul to the post of honorary captain as the officer has said, “There is absolutely no correspondence available in the service records of the deceased with regards to his promotions”.

Giving his reply in the court to the statements of the army officer, Subedar Piara Singh has said that the amount mentioned by him was actually a basic pension which even a havildar was not getting.