Srinagar court orders probe into Major Gogoi's conduct

Srinagar: There appears to be more trouble in store for ‘human-shield’ Major Leetul Gogoi who being court-marshalled after an Army Court of Inquiry (CoI) recently indicted him for “fraternising” with a local woman in a Srinagar hotel and being away from his place of duty in May this year.

A court in Srinagar on Saturday asked the Jammu & Kashmir government to conduct a thorough probe against Major Gogoi in connection with the May 23 incident when he had picked up a fight with the staff of a city hotel Grand Mamta on being refused to check in with a teenage girl from Chak-e-Kawoosa village of the Valley’s central district of Budgam.

The Army officer and the girl were being accompanied by a local man Sameer Ahmed Malla who later turned out to be soldier. The trio was detained at Srinagar’s Khanyar police station briefly. The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar Aijaz Ahmed Khan in an order stated that the investigations into the case have been conducted in a very casual manner without ascertaining the facts. He said that the case needs further investigations. CJM also said the Major Gogoi had by creating a fake Facebook account where he introduced himself as Ubaid Arman violated law and, therefore, this aspect of the matter also needs to be investigated in terms of IT act.

The judge while responding to an application filed by Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, a local human rights activist and chairman of International Forum for Justice and Human Rights (IFJHR), said that the role of Malla has not been probed by the investigating agency as to why he accompanied the girl to the hotel. The staff at the Srinagar hotel had told the police that the person by the name of Leetul Gogoi who had introduced himself as a businessman from Assam while booking a room online for two persons for one night had arrived at the reception around 11 am on May 23 along another person and a girl. The second person (Malla), it said, was driving the Maruti Alto car in which they had come to the hotel.

While mentioning the purpose of his visit and mode of payment, Major Gogoi had said “I am travelling for business and I may be using a business credit card”. The staff at the hotel front desk had asked him to show  his identity card which he failed to do and instead gave it his driving license. When the front desk staff asked him about the girl he wanted to check in with, neither he nor she could give it a “satisfactory answer”. This made the hotel staff suspicious and when it refused them to check in, “the driver became violent and started abusing and threatening us.” The argument turned into a physical brawl. The hotel staff called the police which took the trio to City’s Khanyar police station.

The police, however, did not register any case against Major Gogoi as the 18-year-old student had said in a statement before a magistrate that she had gone with her “friend” and there was no force involved. The girl had in her statement also said that she had planned the trip with Major Gogoi and Malla on the phone and had asked them to pick her from the Magam area of Budgam on the morning of May 23. “There was no force. I came to Srinagar with them out of my own will. I had asked them  to pick me up at Magam area at 10 am and we made the trip as per our plan,” she had been quoted by the police as saying. She had in her testimony also said that she had got in touch with the Army officer on Facebook where Major Gogoi had introduced himself Ubaid Arman.