Srinagar: The Army on Friday ordered a court of inquiry against Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi, who was detained by the police earlier this week following an altercation when he was allegedly trying to enter a hotel with an 18-year-old woman.
The future course of action would depend on the findings of the probe, officials said. The decision to order a court of inquiry came shortly after Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said in Pahalgam that exemplary punishment would be given to Gogoi if he was found guilty of “any offence”.
“If Major Gogoi has done something wrong, I assure you that he will be awarded punishment at the earliest… The punishment will set an example,” the army chief said in Pahalgam, about 95 km from here, while on a visit to the Army Goodwill School. Jammu and Kashmir police is already conducting an investigation into the May 23 incident when the major along with his driver and a young woman from Budgam were handed over to the police. The hotel staff had denied Gogoi entry into a room with the woman, officials said.
The Major had claimed that he was in the hotel for a ‘source meeting’. The “sobbing woman” told the police that she knew the driver of the army officer and had accompanied him to Srinagar from Budgam, the official added. Sources told IANS that Gogoi’s commanding officer was also being shifted for alleged lack of command and control over his subordinates.
Gogoi had hit the headlines last year in April when he tied a local Farooq Ahmed Dar to his jeep and paraded him through 28 villages in Budgam district apparently to escape the stone pelting. The Army had defended the action and claimed that it was committed in good faith to save lives of many soldiers and polling staff from violent stone-pelters in Utligam village of Beerwah.