Army officers among 7 given life sentence

ASummary General Court Martial (SGCM) of the Indian army has convicted seven personnel, including a Major General, in a 24-year-old fake encounter case, sentencing them to life in prison.

Sources in an army unit based in Dibrugarh said yesterday that Major General A K Lal, Colonel Thomas Mathew, Colonel R S Sibiren, Captain Dilip Singh, Captain Jagdeo Singh, Naik Albindar Singh and Naik Shivendar Singh have been awarded life imprisonment for their involvement in a fake encounter case in Assam’s Tinsukia district in 1994.

Former Assam minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jagadish Bhuyan said that nine youths were picked up by the army from different areas of Tinsukia district on February 18, 1994 on suspicion that they were involved in the killing of a top tea garden executive.

The soldiers killed five of them in a fake encounter, branding them as militants a few days after the incident. The other four were released.

Bhuyan had filed a habeas corpus petition in the Gauhati High Court on February 22 the same year, seeking the whereabouts of the youths. The court asked the army to produce the nine All Assam Students Union leaders at the nearest police station. The army produced five bodies at the Dholla Police Station.

The court martial process began on July 16 this year and concluded on July 27.