Gujarat HC suspends life sentence of 3 IAF officers in 1995 custodial death case

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had convicted the trio and sentenced them to life imprisonment in a custodial death case, which took place at Jamnagar Air Force Station in Gujarat in 1995

The Gujarat high court on Friday suspended the life sentence of two retired and one serving Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel who were convicted by a special court last year for the custodial death of a cook 28 years ago.

The accused were found guilty of killing 28-year-old Girja Rawat, who worked as a cook at Air Force-I, Jamnagar (Representative Photo)

A division bench granted them bail on the condition that they would not leave the country and would remain present during the hearing of their appeal against the conviction.

The bench of Justice SH Vora and Justice SV Pinto on Friday suspended the sentence of retired group captain Anoop Sood, retired sergeant Anil KN and serving sergeant Mahendra Singh Sherawat stating that the convicts “stand a fair chance of acquittal and the conviction recorded under sections 302, 348, 177 read with Section 120-B of the IPC is apparently erroneous and the conviction may not be sustainable.”

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had convicted the trio and sentenced them to life imprisonment in a custodial death case, which took place at Jamnagar Air Force Station in Gujarat in 1995.

The accused were found guilty of killing 28-year-old Girja Rawat, who worked as a cook at Air Force-I, Jamnagar. Of the eight accused in the case, three were acquitted, one died during the course of the trial, and three were convicted, including the two retired and one serving IAF personnel. One of the accused, J S Sidhu, the then head of the Air Force Police, Jamnagar, has been absconding.

The cook was accused of stealing 94 liquor bottles from the IAF Jamnagar’s canteen stores department following which on November 13, 1995, a search was conducted by 12 IAF officials of different ranks and they found one broken glass bottle from the outside compound of the residential quarter of Rawat.

He was then detained and brought in for interrogation at the Main Guard Room. It was alleged that the accused tortured Rawat to make him confess to the theft. In the evening, his wife visited the Guard Room and requested the officials to release her husband. On November 14, 1995, he was later taken to the SSQ, Jamnagar, however, the duty medical officer declared him brought dead

Rawat’s widow Shakuntala Devi lodged a first information report (FIR) with local police against the IAF officials accusing them of murdering her husband. Investigation took place and a charge sheet was filed against eight officials for murder and criminal conspiracy among other charges.

The trial was transferred from the Jamnagar sessions court to a CBI court in Ahmedabad in 2017. A separate charge sheet was filed against the absconder Sidhu.

On Friday, the Gujarat high court in its order noted that the accused have been sentenced for the offence under Section 313, 348 and 177 read with Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code; but there is no evidence to show the presence of the applicants at the Main Guard Room and no witness who deposes that they have seen the applicants near the Main Guard Room trying to exhort confession from Rawat.

“There is no evidence as to the meeting of minds of the applicants along with the other co-accused at any point of time to suggest any conspiracy and in the absence of any evidence, the judgment of the trial court suffers from patent infirmities and the findings are erroneous and based on presumptions and assumptions,” it added in the 23-page order.