New Delhi, Sept 7: Defence Minister AK Antony has ordered a re-investigation into the mysterious death of Captain Sumit Kohli in Jammu and Kashmir, heeding to the demands of his family that had maintained that it was a murder and not a suicide as claimed by the Army.
Antony, who had met the family of Sumit a fortnight ago, asked Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar to order the fresh investigation following a representation from the young officer’s mother Veena Kohli, Ministry sources said on Tuesday. Veena had demanded a probe independent of the Army or by the CBI, saying she had no faith in the Army that had declared that Sumit had committed suicide.
26-year-old Sumit, who was serving with 16 Rashtriya Rifles in Lolab in north Kashmir, was found dead with gun shot wounds in his room in the military residential facility in April 2006 on the last day of posting in counter-insurgency operations in the border state.
Captain Kohli’s wife Dipika Kohli had, however, questioned Army’s suicide theory.
“If he shot himself with an AK-47, his face wouldn’t have been intact. He would have had multiple fractures,” Dipika had said. The Army has been saying Captain Kohli shot himself with an AK-47 while his family’s version is that his throat was slit. The Army also said that the Captain killed himself as he was depressed over domestic problems.
But the family claimed he could not take his own life as he was a brave officer.
The captain’s family believes he was murdered by senior officers because he was going to blow the lid on fake encounters in Kashmir Valley in which four porters were killed in Lolab in April 2004.
In August 2005, the Army had ordered a probe into the allegation that its personnel killed four natives of a border hamlet in Jammu in a fake encounter claiming them to be militants to get gallantry awards.
The widow of one of the fake-encounter victims had reportedly received a letter naming Colonel Rahul Pandey as the man accused in the so-called fake encounter. The letter was signed “your soldier, a believer in humanity”.
Refuting Veena’s contention, Col Rahul Pandey, who was the then commanding officer of Sumit’s unit, had maintained that it was a case of suicide due to family troubles.
The Defence Minister had assured the family, based in Chandigarh, that Summit’s death would be re-investigated and he would get back to them on it soon. Sumit’s family had appealed to the Minister to provide justice to it, noting that its suspicion over the mystery over Sumit’s death had only strengthened on perusal of documents due to contradictions in the autopsy and medical reports.
Demanding access to original documents, Veena had said, “it should be found out how he died. I had earlier thought that whatever Army was saying was correct, but I want his post-mortem report so that I can be fully satisfied. I can’t believe he had committed suicide.”
Earlier on August 2, Delhi High Court had asked the army to hand over various reports relating to the death of Capt Kohli to his family members.
The High Court said the Army will make available the reports relating to court of inquiry and autopsy of Kohli to his mother and wife within 15 days.
It also imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the Centre to be paid to the mother and wife of the army officer.
The court dismissed the appeal filed by the Centre against the order of Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the army to provide such informations.
The court also said; “It was erroneous on the part of the centre to contend that the information pertaining to the son and the husband of the two Respondents (Veena and Akansha) respectively, cannot be provided as it pertains to events that transpired in the State of Jammu & Kashmir”.
It was also stated by the Army that the death had occurred in Jammu and Kashmir and the RTI Act was not applicable there.
Pertinently, Colonel Neeraj Sood who was commanding 18 Rashtriya Rifles, died in similar circumstances on June 23 this year again in the Lolab valley area of frontier district Kupwara.
The incident took place after the surfacing of killing of four Nadihal youth in a fake encounter in Machil sector on May 29.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 7 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 7 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 8 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST