‘Honeytrapped’ sepoy to face court martial

Ravinder Saini

Tribune News Service

Mahendragarh, July 16

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Narnaul has decided that the case of Army man Ravinder Yadav be tried by court martial. He had been arrested five days ago on charges of sharing secret information pertaining to the Army with a foreign woman on Facebook and Whatsapp.

The order was passed by the CJM while hearing a petition moved by advocate of the accused, who pleaded that the case be tried by court martial, citing Section 475 of the CrPC. The advocate gave reference of a High Court order in a similar case to support his plea.

“Under Section 475 of the CrPC, there is a provision to decide that such cases be tried by court martial. We urged the magistrate to transfer the case to the Commanding Officer of 5 Kumaon Regiment in Arunachal Pradesh, where he is posted,” said advocate Ishwar Jakhar.

Yadav had joined the Kumaon Regiment as sepoy in 2017. Jakhar said the court had directed the Station House Officer concerned to hand over the accused to the Commanding Officer after obtaining transit warrants. The Commanding Officer had been asked to send the case back if trial was not held there, he added.

“The advocate pleaded in court that only Army officers could determine how much vital information had been shared by the accused with the woman. Since the police are unable to carry out such investigation, the case should be tried by court martial,” said a police spokesman. The police would obtain transit warrants for handing over the accused to his regiment, he said.

Sources said Yadav had disclosed during interrogation that the woman used multiple mobile numbers to chat with him on Facebook and Whatsapp and he shared information about his station of posting and weapons.

According to the sources, he had come in contact with her last year when he was posted at Amritsar. The woman had deposited Rs 5,000 into his bank account, the sources added.