SRINAGAR, An Indian soldier has been dismissed from service and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a fellow soldier in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

According Kashmir media service, the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has upheld the decision of a summary general court martial (SGCM), convicting the soldier for the fatal shooting of his colleague during duty in December 2012. The incident took place within an infantry unit stationed in IIOJK, where the victim was serving on sentry duty.

The appellant-convict challenged the SGCM’s ruling before the AFT, arguing that the conviction was based on circumstantial evidence and that the sequence of events leading to the crime was not conclusively established. He contested that the actual motive was unproven and implicated another soldier who had taken over the sentry duty from the deceased just before the incident.

However, on November 6, the AFT bench, comprising Justice Sudhir Mittal and Lt Gen Ravindra Pal Singh, examined the evidence and concluded that only the appellant-convict could have perpetrated the murder. “We are satisfied that the chain of events is complete, and no one other than the appellant-convict could have committed the crime,” the bench stated.

The bench further noted that the appellant-convict had tried to create a false narrative about his whereabouts during the shooting and had attempted to mislead his peers about the source of the gunfire.

The report also highlighted that incident of fratricide have been recurrent among Indian troops in IIOJK, with several such instances resulting in fatalities and injuries over the years.