Major Gogoi will be punished if found guilty: Army chief

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday that Major Leetul Gogoi will face exemplary punishment if found involved in any unlawful activity.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a function at Pahalgam, Gen Rawat was asked to comment on the incident in which the Major was detained for questioning along with a girl by the police.

The Army chief said: "Major Gogoi will be severely punished if he is found involved in any unlawful activity.

"If anyone in the Indian Army, at any rank, does any wrong and it comes to our notice, then strictest action will be taken.

"If Major Gogoi has done something wrong, then I can say that he will be given due punishment and the punishment will be such that it will set an example."

Major Gogoi hit the headlines in April last year when he tied a local weaver, Farooq Ahmad Dar, to the bonnet of an Army Jeep during stone pelting in Badgam district.

The officer was on Wednesday taken to a police station in Srinagar along with the girl and a man for questioning after the staff at a hotel reported that the officer had booked a room and wanted to stay there with the girl.

After questioning, police handed over the Major to his unit. A special investigation team headed by a Superintendent of Police has been set up to probe the incident.

Meanwhile, the family of the girl living in Chak-e-Kawoosa village of Badgam district has left the village after the news about the incident spread in the Kashmir Valley.

Reporters intending to meet the family discovered that the family had shifted to some unknown destination after the incident was reported by the media.

--IANS

sq/mr