Army to analyse Tribunal verdict on Kargil war officer

PTI

With the Armed Forces Tribunal indicting a top officer for falsifying Kargil war reports and showing bias towards a brigadier, the Army on Thursday said it will take action on the issue after analysing the verdict. Raising serious questions about the military leadership in the 1999 Kargil war, the Armed Forces Tribunal has indicted a former Lieutenant General for showing bias towards a Brigadier playing down his achievements and for falsifying accounts of battles.

The Tribunal, whose observation has come as an embarassment to the Army, directed that the affected officer Brigadier(Retd) Devinder Singh be considered for a notional promotion.

The matter came to light after Singh who led 70 Infantry Brigade in the Batalik sector in the Kargil war, filed a petition in the Delhi High Court complaining of wrong depiction of his battle performance. Several complaints similar to Singh are pending before the Tribunal.

"We have not yet received the copy of Tribunal's judgement. Once we get it, it will be analysed and appropriate action would be taken," a senior Army officer told PTI here.

The Principal Bench of the Tribunal, in its verdict, has held that Lt Gen (retd) Kishan Pal, former 15 Corps General Officer Commanding (GOC) showed bias against Brigadier Devinder Singh, former 70 Infantry Brigade Commander and belittled his achievements in the war besides falsifying accounts of battles during the Kargil operations.

The Tribunal has asked the Army to consider Singh, a former 70 Infantry Brigade Commander, for promotion to the notional rank of major general and to put the relevant records and documents pertaining to operations by his formation in Batalik sector written by him to be corrected and put in the right perspective.

"I feel vindicated," said a visibly happy Singh recounting his long battle with authorities.

"One has gone through a number of stages of non-statutory complaints, statutory complaints, legal notices and several writ petitions...Finally the order has seen the light of the day."

In its order, the Tribunal, headed by Justice A K Mathur, held that "the annual confidential reports (ACRs) were not written in an objective and unbiased manner" by Lt. Gen. Pal.