SRINAGAR, 26 May 2007 — In the second such instance, an Indian Army trooper has been sentenced to death by a summary court martial of the army.
The trooper, Satyam Kumar, of the Corps of Signals, had shot at and killed a noncommissioned officer, Havildar Padam Rajan, at a camp in Rambal in the Udhmpur district of Jammu region on October 28, 2006.
The soldier was arrested immediately after the shootout and tried in an army court martial in the northern command headquarters at Udhampur.
This is only the second time, since the country’s independence, that an army court has handed down such a severe punishment to a soldier.
Early this year, another summary court martial awarded capital punishment to a trooper who had killed his commanding officer in a Rashtriya Rifles (RR) camp at Harwan on the outskirts of the summer capital Srinagar last year. Experts here blame long separation from families and continuous discharge of duty in hostile conditions for such freakish behavior among the deployed soldiers.
The authorities have also formed committees of senior defense personnel to recommend steps for checking such behavior among the troops.
Services of counselors among other things like increased recreational facilities, periodic leaves and permission to carry families along are some of measures suggested to check the growing tendency of internecine murders among security forces. So far over 300 troopers including officers have died in friendly fire in the country during instances when irate soldiers fired at commanding officers or colleagues.
