Army Havildar dismissed for filming women at Command Hospital, AFT grants bail 

Army authorities who seized a Havildar’s mobile phone while probing possible espionage allegations instead found videos and images of women engaged in private acts recorded in a washroom at Command Hospital (Western Command), Chandimandir. He was subsequently dismissed from service and sentenced to one year’s rigorous imprisonment after a District Court-Martial found him guilty.

The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has now granted bail to former Havildar More Sandip Sadashiv.

Sadashiv, 45, was posted at HQ 474 Engineer Brigade in 2020. On June 24, 2022, he reported to Command Hospital (Western Command), Chandimandir, for treatment of a skin infection and was admitted on June 30 after being diagnosed with scabies.

On July 25, 2022, Military Intelligence personnel confiscated his mobile phone to examine it for confidential information linked to suspected espionage. He was discharged from the hospital two days later.

Examination of the phone revealed 28 videos and images of women engaged in private acts inside a washroom.

He was charged under Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises watching or capturing images of a woman engaged in a private act without her consent. Army authorities alleged that he used his mobile phone to record videos and capture images inside the women’s washroom at the hospital between July 21 and July 25, 2022. The washroom was located opposite the ward where he had been admitted.

A District Court-Martial in Ambala found him guilty and sentenced him to one year’s rigorous imprisonment. He was also dismissed from service and reduced in rank. The punishment was promulgated on March 24 this year.

During a hearing before the Chandigarh Bench of the AFT on May 29, the tribunal noted that Sadashiv had already spent more than nine months in custody. His counsel, Rajesh Sehgal, sought suspension of the sentence pending disposal of the appeal, arguing that the punishment awarded was less than three years.

The bench of Justice Sudhir Mittal and Lt Gen Ravendra Pal Singh observed that the appeal, filed this year, was unlikely to be decided in the near future.

“Thus, the application is allowed. The remaining prison sentence of the appellant is suspended during the pendency of the appeal. The appellant shall be granted bail subject to his furnishing bail and surety bond…,” the tribunal said.