Major Gogoi caught with a ‘minor’ girl at a hotel

The city police on Wednesday morning held an army officer, a girl, and a man from a hotel in Srinagar when the hotel staff reported to the police that the army officer and the man were raising a ruckus in the hotel lobby. The  men were furious at the hotel staff for denying the army officer and the girl entry into a hotel room that the army man had booked on the internet.

According to staffers at the Hotel Grand Mamta, Dalgate, a couple came up to the hotel receptionist and told them that they have made an online booking for a night stay at the hotel. While the officer was showing them an identity document, the hotel staffer grew suspicious about the girl whom he saw as 16 or 17 years old. He asked for her identity document. The girl after some hesitation produced an Aadhar card. After learning about who she was, the receptionist put his foot down and told the army officer, whose driving license identified him as Leetul Gogoi, that the hotel’s policy didn’t allow him to let a local girl stay in the hotel.

   

According to the hotel general manager Aijaz Ahmad, the refusal to have a room infuriated the army officer and he went out of the hotel and talked to a man in a black Alto car parked outside. The man now identified as Sameer Ahmad, of Budgam, came with the army officer back into the hotel and began to shout at the staffers for denying the army officer and the girl the permission to have a room to stay for the night. When the man turned violent, the hotel staff called the police. In no time a police party came to the hotel premises and took the army officer, the man, and the girl to the police station.

According to the Inspector General of Police, SP Pani, a probe has been ordered: “SP North Zone will probe the Hotel Grand Mamta Incident. It will be a fair probe, we have nothing to hide,” he said. Although the police didn’t reveal the full identity of the army officer, the news agencies identified him as Leetul Major Gogoi.

A police statement released later had this to say: “On Monday police station Khanyar received a call from Hotel Grand Mamta that an altercation has taken place at the hotel. Accordingly, a police party was deputed to the hotel, and it surfaced that a woman (name withheld) and person namely Sameer Ahmad of Budgam had come to see some person”

“But the hotel receptionist did not allow them to meet the person. Meanwhile, police party reached the spot and got all the persons to the police station.”

The statement went on to read: “it was learnt that the women had come to meet an army officer. The identity and particulars of the army officers has been collected by the police as well. The official was handed over to his unit after recording his statement. The statement of the women is also being recorded for probing the matter.” 

The girl will continue to stay in police custody to record a statement before a magistrate, after which she would be handed over to her family. According to a source in the police, “The identity of Major Gogoi has been identified in this case.”

Major Leetul Gogoi attained notoriety in Kashmir when he strapped a civilian Farooq Dar to the front of his jeep and paraded him through a village in Budgam to instil fear among the people there. Far from punishing the officer, the chief of the army rewarded the officer with a letter of commendation. 

The State Human Rights Commission had recommended to the state government to compensate Dar for the humiliation and psychological and physical torture and trauma he endured. But an Empowered Committee comprising of officials from the home department, CID, police and law department had submitted a report before the commission on Monday, rejecting its recommendation for the compensation of Rs 10 lakh.

Over seven petitions have been filed against Major Gogoi in the State Human Rights Commission. Besides tying Farooq Dar to the bonnet of the jeep, the army unit of 53 Rashtriya Rifle, which was headed by Major Gogoi had allegedly killed a tailor Tanveer Ahmad Wani from Beerwah, Budgam.

When contacted, the human shield Farooq Dar termed the turn of events as “God establishing the truth, literally.”

“I did vote and then I had to pay for that. They labeled me  a stone pelter and left me to die. Nobody from the government supported me and today was the day of divine Judgment,” Dar said. ‘The army awarded him (Gogoi) for tying me to the jeep and God shamed him in front of the entire world.”  

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