New Delhi: Army chief General Bipin Rawat has questioned the decision of 356 armed forces personnel to move the Supreme Court asking that the Indian Army not be prosecuted for alleged extrajudicial killings. According to the petitioners, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act will be diluted if army officers are prosecuted.
Rawat reportedly said that the petitioners may weaken the Army’s case. “The Army was fighting these cases, the government is aware of these cases, and AFSPA is a very strong law which provides protection to the soldiers. Now, if these guys (the petitioners) lose the case, what will happen,” Indian Express quoted Rawat as saying during a three-hour interaction with colonel-rank officers and their wives Sunday.
Rawat also reportedly said that none of the officers who signed the petition had ever taken part in any counter-insurgency operations.
An official told The Hindu that Rawat was “annoyed” by the petition. “Serving personnel going out of the way sets a wrong precedent. There is a system for it, and the Army has always been with the soldiers on it,” the official said.
According to Indian Express, the Army chief was particularly scathing in his remarks on officers of the JAG branch. He said these lawyers had misled the officers and soldiers to make sure that they had cases to fight after their retirement.
On August 14, as The Wire reported, the army officers filed a petition before the court saying that they feel that the FIRs which are being filed against them by the CBI and state governments in fake encounter cases are “motivated and indiscriminate”. They call the victims “anti-nationals”. In the petition, they ask the court to initiate an investigation into the victims and petitioners themselves. They even ask for armed forces personnel who are the accused in this case to be given “adequate compensation” by the court.