Strict action if guilty, says Army chief after Major Gogoi is detained at Kashmir hotel with woman

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday Major Leetul Gogoi will be given “exemplary punishment” if he is found guilty of violating rules after the Rashtriya Rifles officer was detained along with a woman and a local man on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar.

“If anyone in the Indian Army, at any rank, does any wrong and it comes to our notice then strict action will be taken against him,” Gen Rawat said.

“If Major Gogoi has done anything wrong I assure you that soon he will be punished and I will give such punishment that it will become a precedent,’’ he told the reporters in Pahalgham while on a visit to the Army Goodwill School.

The army chief was in south Kashmir to review the situation with formation commanders after the unilateral ceasefire announced by the Centre.

Gogoi was briefly detained by the local police after he was involved in a row with the staff of a hotel, where he had booked a room in his name online, in the summer capital of the state. The woman and an army personnel came to the hotel and asked to go to Gogoi’s room and got into an altercation with the staff when they were not allowed.

The officer was later handed over to his unit in Budgam. The woman went back to her parents after recording her statement in front of a magistrate

The Jammu and Kashmir police have initiated an inquiry into the incident involving Gogoi. A senior police officer said that “the probe is still on and no conclusion has been reached so far”.

Gogoi was in the news after he tied a Kashmiri civilian to the front of his jeep in April last year during the by-elections for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, apparently in an attempt to prevent stone-pelters from targeting his convoy. The incident led to a massive human rights controversy.

Gen Rawat awarded Gogoi a commendation card for his “sustained efforts” on counter-insurgency operations.