NEW DELHI, May 18:
The Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea seeking a CBI probe into the mysterious death of a non commissioned officer of Army Intelligence Corp nearly 34 years ago when he was allegedly taken into military custody in connection with the infamous Samba spy case.
“The petition is dismissed,” Justice M L Mehta said and did not allow the plea to re-open the case relating to the death of Havildar Ram Swaroop.
The court’s decision came on the petition of Anguri Devi, wife of Swaroop, seeking re-opening of the investigation claiming the post-mortem report, which is now available to her under the Right to Information Act, suggested 39 injuries on his body.
The widow said her husband was brought dead at the Base Hospital on the night of September 30, 1978, under mysterious circumstances.
In the Samba spy case, 41 Army officers were allegedly charged with spying activities and passing on information about the troop movement to others, the petition said.
Firstly, a constable of Delhi Police informed the widow that Ram Swaroop’s body had been found, the petition had said, adding that later the army retrieved the body and “disposed it of by performing the last rites in the late hours under the supervision of army officers.”
Seeking to revisit the case, the petition said as the post mortem report is available, the court may order “registration of FIR …And transfer investigation to CBI or to a Special Investigation Team (SIT).”
Ram Swaroop was allegedly killed in custody after being detained by the officers of military intelligence on August 26, 1978, in connection with the Samba Spy case.
The accused officers were charged with passing ORBAT (an order in which the army moves in the event of war), the petition had said, adding such “highly classified” information can be accessed only by an officer not below the rank of a Brigadier.
Not an officer of the rank of Brigadier was charged in the spy case, it had said.
The high court had in April, 1996, dismissed the plea for registration of the FIR on the ground that there was no material on record to substantiate the unnatural death of the petitioner’s husband, it said, adding the post mortem report, necessitates re-opening of the probe into the case.
“Besides the post-mortem report, this petition is accompanied with the CD containing the statements of IB chiefs, senior army officer and star witnesses of the army. If these statements are taken into consideration, they make a very colorable case of serious cover-up,” it had said. (PTI)
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