Chandigarh, September 29, 2022 (PPI-OT):The moral corruption in Indian Army stands exposed yet again as two of its officers including a woman have been convicted for maintaining an illicit relationship. Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) upheld the trial and conviction by court martial of two Army officers, including a woman, for their illicit relationship. It stated that an officer is expected to maintain a certain level of character and behaviour at all times and any act detrimental to this behaviour may not only tarnish the reputation of the force, but may put the security in jeopardy.

The two officers of the rank of Major were tried by separate Summary General Court Martial (SGCM) in the Northern Command in 2019. While the male officer was cashiered from service and awarded three months rigorous imprisonment, the woman officer was dismissed from service.

Three charges were levelled against them under Sections 45 of the Army Act for conduct unbecoming of an officer, where they indulged in an illicit relationship and got themselves video graphed in explicit acts and under Section 69 of the Army Act for threatening another woman officer to harm her reputation.

During the trial, they had claimed that false complaints had been made against them by the wife of the male officer due to a marital discord, major infirmities in proceedings and non-adherence to certain statutory provisions.

In separate orders, the Tribunal’s bench comprising Justice Rajendra Menon and Lt Gen PM Hariz said that the findings recorded by the SGCM were on due appreciation of the evidence and discussed in detail. “We see no error in the findings recorded by the SGCM. The analysis of evidence has been done properly and a reasonable finding has been recorded which does not suffer from any infirmity or illegality, in any manner, whatsoever,” the bench ruled. Though the officers had contended that their relationship was a personal matter and cannot form an act of misconduct under Section 45, the Bench did not accept this argument.

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