Mumbai: In a major jolt to the Indian Army, the Bombay High Court on Thursday quashed a criminal case registered against a journalist and a former soldier for abetting suicide of an Army jawan.
The HC quashed the case booked against the duo under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act. A bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre granted relief to senior journalist Poonam Agarwal and war veteran Deepchand Singh, who were facing an FIR, for shooting a sting video at Nasik’s Deolali Cantonment.
Agarwal along with war veteran Deepchand Singh have been booked by the Nasik Police for conducting a sting operation in the ‘restricted’ Deolali Cantonment area. The duo claimed the sting highlighted the prevalent “sahayak system” in the Army.
Soon after the video was uploaded on social media in March 2017, the soldier Lance Naik, Roy Mathew, who was featured in the sting video, committed suicide by hanging himself to a ceiling fan in his room. Accordingly, the Indian Army claimed Agarwal and Singh have ‘tarnished’ the image of the army. It also claimed the duo were spying in a restricted area. “It is the Army that has lost its Jawan. The morale of the Army has been hit by the offence.
It is Army whose reputation is at stake,” the Army had claimed in its plea to intervene in the matter. Trashing the Army’s contentions, the bench said, “Spying has a different meaning. We do not find anything in this case that says the accused persons did something that affected the national interest.” To this, the Army counsel submitted the case cannot be quashed as the duo has also been booked under the Official Secrets Act.
Interrupting the counsel, the bench said, “She (Agarwal) did not have any intention to go and commit an offence (in the restricted area). We do not understand why you (Army) are so vindictive.” The bench accordingly, quashed the criminal case against Agarwal and Singh.
