Identify men mutilated by enemy, CIC tells Army

New Delhi, July 28

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Army to provide details of soldiers whose bodies were mutilated by insurgents and enemy soldiers during skirmishes on Pakistan and China borders.

The case resulted from an RTI application filed by one Abhishek Shukla in 2013 as the Army decided to keep under covers the information in this regard about the soldiers who had given supreme sacrifice for the country fighting enemies.

“People of the country have right to know about the soldiers who lay down their lives in the line of duty,” Information Commissioner Divya Prakash Sinha said.

The Army, which had to respond to an RTI application within 30 days, took 78 days to give its first response to the RTI application declining to share any details citing Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act to withhold the information.

The Army raised an additional argument during the hearing before Sinha, saying its HQs did not maintain the information of soldiers whose bodies had been mutilated.

The appellant countered it saying if they did not maintain the information, how was Army citing national security to deny it. The applicant also cited the statement given by ex-Defence Minister AK Antony in the RS where he had given details of a past incident.

“On January 8, 2013, a Pak Border Action Team ambushed our patrol party in Krishna Ghati in which Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh and Lance Naik Hemraj were killed. Lance Naik Hemraj was found beheaded and both bodies were mutilated,” Antony had said.

As per law, the information that can be placed before Parliament cannot be denied to a citizen. The appellant cited a press meet of ex-Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh who had accepted that two jawans of Kumaon regiment had been beheaded by Pak army in 2012. — PTI