Samba case: Army wants tribunal to reject pleas by accused

The Army today contended before a tribunal that petitions filed by six personnel allegedly involved in the three-decade old Samba spy case should be rejected on the ground that similar cases were dismissed by High Courts earlier.

The Army on Wednesday contended before a tribunal that petitions filed by six personnel allegedly involved in the three-decade old Samba spy case should be rejected on the ground that similar cases were dismissed by High Courts earlier.

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"We have filed a plea on maintainability of the cases before the Armed Forces Tribunal as four of the petitioners had filed similar cases in Jammu and Kashmir High Court which were dismissed. The cases can't be taken up here again," Army counsel Colonel (retd) R Balasubramaniam said.

The tribunal has asked petitioners including Captain Sewa Ram and gunners Banarasi Lal, Milkhi Ram, Satpal, Hari Singh and Ajit Kumar to reply to the notice on the plea raised by the Army in next hearing, he said.

During the last hearing on May 31, Army was asked by the court to produce all documents pertaining to the case including the court martial records.

Around 50 personnel of 168 Brigade deployed along the Line-of-Control (LoC) were punished after being accused of spying for Pakistan on the basis of statements given by former gunners Sarwan Dass and Aya Singh during 1978-79.

The appeals by the soldiers seeking to get their names cleared were among the cases transferred from the High Court to the tribunal in August last year.

Interestingly, the whole case got reopened after the Intelligence Bureau caught Sarwan Dass and Aya Singh on spying charges but they were not punished by the Army for espionage but for petty offences like 'Absent without Leave'.

Sarwan Dass had claimed in 1994 that he had falsely implicated the officers and jawans in the case under pressure from higher officers of that time.

Sarwan Dass at present lives in his village near Jammu whereas Aya Singh was reportedly shot dead by troops while trying to enter Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) by crossing the LoC in 1990.