The Hindu : Kerala News : Harassment of army officer alleged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Harassment of army officer alleged

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAURAM, SEPT.13. After knocking at several doors without much success, a 65-year-old widow from Kodunganoor in Thiruvananthapuram district has approached the President, who is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, against what she describes as the harassment of her son who is a Lt. Colonel in the Army by the higher-ups for reporting financial irregularities running into lakhs of rupees.

B. Sathyabhama said in a memorandum submitted to the President that Lt. Col Arun Kumar, who had served the Army for the last 23 years and who was currently "illegally attached" to the 3 Raj Rifles at Kota in Rajasthan, was being harassed for the last two years in the form of "malicious prosecution, denial of leave for treatment, wrongful confinement and restraint by his superiors".

The woman, whose late husband had retired as CPO after 26 years of service in the Indian Navy, complained that her son suffered a heart attack owing to the harassment and had been advised bypass surgery by the doctors of the Command Hospital at Pune.

Canteen audit

Mrs. Sathyabhama said that it all began with the reporting of financial irregularities that came to his attention during a canteen audit. He turned down his superiors' dictates to cover up the incident. He also brought to light several instances of misuse of Railway warrant and other offences by another officer. He also reported a "series of unlawful acts" committed by some of his superiors to extricate themselves from these offences.

Because of it, he was "maliciously picturised" as mentally deranged and subjected to "coercive admission" in psychiatric wards on two different occasions. It was done to destroy his psyche and brand him a lunatic. But it was thwarted by "morally upright" army doctors. The mother stated that the "torture" of her son attained "horrendous proportions" last week when he was "forcefully discharged" from the Kota Military Hospital at night. She lamented that all her efforts to contact her son were being foiled by the superiors.

She contended that she had reasons to believe that vested interests were trying to eliminate her son as he was the prime witness to the corruption and the wrongful conduct of some officers. She said that she was approaching the President after taking recourse to all the provisions for redressal as per Army rules and the Constitution which included statutory complaint. She called for the President's urgent intervention to save her son and get him released from service.

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