An armed forces Tribunal has disregarded a police investigation & army court martial to suspend a life term and give bail to an army captain accused of killing three civilians from Jammu in July 2020. The only thing they all appear to agree on is that the original army account was fake. A brigadier said “hardcore terrorists” had been killed, but the captain’s commanding officer claimed no knowledge of the incident. As families of those slain expressed anguish and outrage at the Tribunal’s decision, the officer’s counsel told us the killing was a ‘unit operation’, and Singh was ‘chosen as executor of the act’.

Srinagar: The suspension of a life-term for an army captain—for the murder of three civilians in a extrajudicial killing in south Kashmir on 18 July 2020—by an Armed Forces Tribunal has revealed a series of contradictions between its findings and investigations by the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police and an army court of inquiry, leaving the truth of what happened that day unclear.

While the trial goes on, the Tribunal, in an interim order on 9 November 2023, disregarded the primary evidence considered by the police and the army against Capt Bhoopendra Singh of 62 Rashtriya Rifles, an army unit specially raised for counter-insurgency tasks.

The Tribunal is independent of the army, but, like the army, functions under the union ministry of defence. It was staffed, in Capt Singh’s case, by a retired lieutenant general and a former chief justice of the Patna and Delhi high courts. It is not clear when the final order will be delivered.

 “The applicant has already been in custody for a period of about three years and therefore, it is a fit case where, prima facie, evidence available on record suggests that bail can be granted to the applicant by suspending the sentence,” said the Tribunal.

The first anomalies were legally recorded in a on 26 December 2020 police chargesheet, which contradicted a public claim made on 19 July 2020 by the sector commander, Brigadier Ajay Katoch, that the three cousins killed were “hardcore terrorists”.

The police charge sheet said that the captain did not inform senior officers about his “operation”. The Tribunal said Capt Singh could have no “motive” for such action without the knowledge of his superior officers, adding it would not accept the statement of his commanding officer, a colonel, who—in direct contradiction of Brig Katoch’s assertion—claimed to have no knowledge of the incident.

“It was a unit operation and out of many people, Singh was chosen as executor of the act,” Capt Singh’s counsel at the Tribunal, Maj (retd) Sudhanshu S Pandey, told Article 14. Maj Pandey also said despite the bail, they were not satisfied with the sentence because the army and police had no evidence that it was Singh who carried out the “operation”.

This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here .