Officers in Samba spy case seek fresh investigation

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 27

Seeking a rollback of a Supreme Court order denying them relief as granted by the High Court, several former army officers affected by the infamous Samba spy case of the 1970s on Friday sought a fresh independent investigation into the episode for setting the record straight.

“The entire case in which close to 100 officers and jawans from a particular area were implicated and services of several persons terminated without any benefits was false, fabricated and malicious,” Maj NR Ajwani, who was then a judge advocate and affected by the case, told media persons here.

“It has now come to light that some documents were suppressed during earlier court proceedings and we want an independent inquiry by a special investigation team or a commission to establish what actually happened and why did such things transpire,” he said.

Between August 1978 and January 1979, several Army personnel were arrested and tried for allegedly spying for Pakistan in the Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir between 1972 and 1978. In 2000, the Delhi High Court called the proceedings a “gross miscarriage of justice and set aside the termination of six officers.

In 2014, the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s order. In 2017, the top court again dismissed a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to provide the files on the basis of which the services of officers were terminated.

Several other officers associated with the case were also present on Friday. Claiming that they were all innocent, Capt JS Yadav said they had been fighting for their honour and integrity for over 40 years and it was within the ambit of the government to give them their due.

Stating that they wanted to meet PM Narendra Modi on the issue, Capt V Dewan said the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had also fought their case in the court and it was on the basis of his contentions that the court accepted that Article 18, under which their services were terminated by invoking the President’s pleasure, was subject to judicial review, thereby giving them relief. He added that the present National Security Adviser Ajit Doval was a member of the team under VK Kaul, then Deputy Director and head of counter-intelligence in the Intelligence Bureau.