Jawan who gunned down 4 personnel given life sentence
The convict, Desai Mohan, and the victims, Sagar Banne, Kamlesh R, Santosh Nagaral, and Yogeshkumar J, were from the 80 Medium Regiment of Artillery.
An army jawan who murdered four jawans at the high-security Bathinda military station April 12, 2023, was on Saturday sentenced by a General Court Martial (GCM) to life imprisonment and dismissal from service, people familiar with the proceedings said.
The convict, Desai Mohan, and the victims, Sagar Banne, Kamlesh R, Santosh Nagaral, and Yogeshkumar J, were from the 80 Medium Regiment of Artillery, and all five were colleagues at the mess.
Mohan was charged with four counts of murder — under Section 69 (which states that any person subject to this Act who at any place in or beyond India commits any civil offence shall be deemed to be guilty of an offence against this Act) of the Army Act and Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code — and two counts of theft under Army Act Section 52(a) for theft of weapon and ammunition, the officials said.
The findings and the sentence announced by the GCM, presided over by colonel S Duseja, on Saturday are subject to vetting by the higher army authorities, the people said. Desai shot dead his four colleagues as they slept their rooms near the officers’ mess. Bathinda district police found 19 empty shells from the spot.
According to the first information report (FIR) filed at the cantonment police station on April 12, Mohan alleged that 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. These were found by the Bathinda police on the day of the murder.
The case was taken over by the Army from the civil court under Army Act Section 125 for the trial of the accused by a court martial.
During the probe by civil police, the jawan, who belongs to Andhra Pradesh, initially alleged sexual abuse by the deceased. He also alleged that the four used to speak to his fiancée using his mobile, take compromising photographs of his fiancée and mock him.
During the trial, army officials said that the accused claimed implication at the behest of police and military authorities, and denied having made any confessional statement to the police or Army authorities. 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.
The GCM was being held at Bathinda army base since January this year.
Army PRO Col Sudhir Chamoli did not respond to HT’s request for comment.