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{Bathinda military station shooting} Court martial Army gunner gets life term for killing four colleagues
An army jawan who shot dead four of his colleagues at the high-security Bathinda military station on April 12, 2023, was on Saturday sentenced by a general court martial (GCM) to life imprisonment and was also dismissed from service.
BATHINDA
An army jawan who shot dead four of his colleagues at the high-security Bathinda military station on April 12, 2023, was on Saturday sentenced by a general court martial (GCM) to life imprisonment and was also dismissed from service.
The convict, gunner Desai Mohan, and victims — Sagar Banne, Kamlesh R, Santosh Nagaral, and Yogeshkumar J — were from the 80 Medium Regiment of artillery and were colleagues at the mess.
The four were shot dead when they were asleep in their rooms near the officers’ mess of the heavily guarded military base.
The Bathinda police had found 19 empty shells from the crime spot.
The GCM was being held at the Bathinda army base since January this year.
Army public relations officer (PRO) Col Sudhir Chamoli did not respond to calls and text messages regarding the GCM proceedings.
According to people familiar with the development said besides the murder of four soldiers, gunner Mohan has also been held guilty of theft of weapons and ammunition, which were used in the crime, from an army post at the military station.
The GCM presided by Col S Duseja found Mohan guilty of four counts of murder and two counts of theft of government property and sentenced the jawan to imprisonment for life and dismissal from service.
People familiar with the development said the findings and the sentence announced by the GCM on Saturday are subject to vetting by the higher army authorities.
The jawan was represented by two advocates, Rajesh Sharma and Navjinder Singh, at the court martial, while the prosecution was represented by Brig NK Ohri (retd).
The case was taken over by the army from the civil court under Section 125 of the Army Act.
During the police investigation, Mohan, who belongs to Andhra Pradesh, initially alleged sexual abuse by the deceased.
Mohan also claimed that the four personnel used to speak to his fiancée using his mobile, take compromising photographs of her and make fun of him.
Dring trial, Mohan alleged implication and denied having made any confessional statement to the police or army.
But the GCM rejected his claim as “unsubstantiated and an afterthought” and relying on his voluntary confessional statement made at summary of evidence and ample circumstantial evidence on record, convicted him of all the six charges, officials privy to the matter said.
According to the first information report (FIR) at the cantonment police station on April 12, 2023, Mohan claimed he had spotted two masked men in white kurta-pyjama near the crime scene.
The case was registered on the complaint of Major Ashutosh Shukla of the 80 Medium Regiment, who quoted Mohan’s information that one of the assailants was carrying an INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) rifle and the other an axe.
The FIR stated that an INSAS rifle and a magazine with 28 cartridges had gone missing from an army unit on April 9. The Bathinda police found the rifle and magazine later in the day.
A day after the crime, HT had first reported of Punjab Police picking holes in the eyewitness account. Mohan had stated he saw two men carrying a rifle and an axe, but the autopsy of the four jawans did not reveal any sharp-edged weapon injury.
