Nyoma molestation: Armed Forces Tribunal upholds jawan’s conviction, reduces sentence

Gunner Suman Kumar was accused by wife of a Major of having molested her in her living quarters in Nyoma.

The Principal Bench of Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in Delhi has upheld the conviction of a jawan for molesting the wife of a Major in Ladakh in 2012, but reduced his sentence from seven years’ rigorous imprisonment to five years.

Upholding the conviction of Gunner Suman Kumar by a Summary Court Martial, the bench of Justice V K Shali and Lt Gen S K Singh (retd) reduced his punishment by two years. Finding the sentence “slightly harsh”, the bench said that the punishment ought to be given in a manner that it does not become excessively harsh beyond a point which will, instead of reforming the appellant, eventually drive him to a life of crime.

The bench dismissed the contention of the counsel for the jawan that since the victim was a civilian, being the wife of an Army officer, an FIR should have been lodged with the nearest police station. It had been argued that the entire criminal machinery of the Army could not have been put into motion without a complaint being filed with the police.

Dismissing this argument, the bench said, “Registration of an FIR was not a sine qua non for putting the criminal justice machinery into position against the appellant. More so when the victim had accompanied her husband and was living in an Army territory of Ladakh, where there was hardly any police station, where the report could have been lodged.” It also noted that the victim, being the wife of an Army officer and the incident having taken place in an Army camp, the Army was duty-bound to initiate swift action.

The allegations of bias of the trial court against the jawan were also dismissed by the bench, which observed that officers who beat up the jawan after they came to know that he had molested the officer’s wife had also faced action by the Army. “We have been informed that the persons who had beaten up the appellant, including the husband of the victim, were proceeded against by department action of court martial.”

The case dates back to May 2012, when 226 Field Regiment was deployed in Mahe firing ranges in Ladakh for field firing exercise. Gunner Suman Kumar was accused by wife of a Major of having molested her in her living quarters in Nyoma.