JALANDHAR: The Punjab police has dismissed 20 commandos belonging to the 4th Commando Battalion recently deployed in the state of Assam. on the charges of indiscipline, insubordination and disloyalty.
The dismissal has been effected under section 7 of the Police Act, 1861 and Article 311(2) (B) of the Constitution of India, a particularly harsh charge, under which it is not needed to hold regular department enquiry.
The dismissed commandos include two sub inspectors, 12head constables and six constables.
While some of the dismissed personnel have been found guilty of burning down a police station in Haranga Jao in the North Cachar Hills of Assam, in a fit of anger following the death of six of their colleagues and injuries to three others in an ambush by the NSGN, others have different
charges against them.
The Commandant of the Battalion, B.K, Garg, has found them guilty of firing indiscriminately from a contingent of the force deployed at the TAC headquarters at Haflong during the intervening night of 26 and 27 July which resulted in hitting a large number of houses of innocent villagers and causing a bullet injury to one person. Besides this, some of the dismissed persons also allegedly instigated jawans of two platoons to desert their place of duty and comeback to Punjab without their arms and ammunition in defiance of orders of senior officers, It is learnt that following the ambush and death of the six commandos on July 24, the battalion’s jawans panicked and began running helter skelter. The absence of their Commandant, Garg, from the site, who was away to Delhi to attend a course, added to the confusion and the leaderless jawans went on a “retaliatory binge,” As a result, an enquiry was conducted into the incident. The then IG.
A.C. Sharma, in charge of commando battalions, was also transferred to a non-descript post as IG training, Jalandhar. When contacted he declined to comment anything on the issue saying, “I have nothing to do with it now.”
Meanwhile, the exact circumstances Which led to the dismissal of the jawans is shrouded in mystery, and the jawans have initiated legal proceedings against the authorities challenging their dismissal.
Says Mukhtiar Singh, one of the dismissed constables, who along with 14 others has initiated legal proceedings against the dismissal, “we did not fire indiscriminately at anyone on that night, but were firing in self-defense because we were being fired at from all sides. Now the authorities refuse to believe us.” He did not deny burning the police station saying, ‘it was quite natural for the jawans to do so because, the locals were dancing when we were picking up the remains of our colleagues.”
Besides, there was no one to lead or guide us during those horrifying days and all that the panicked force could think of was how to escape” he adds.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 29, 1995
