AFT orders retrial of IAF woman officer

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, September 15

The Armed Forces Tribunal has directed that a woman Air Force officer be re-tried by general court martial (GCM) in a case of a road accident when a civilian woman had lost her life, after observing that the proceedings in first trial were vitiated.

The GCM had, in 2018, dismissed the officer, a Squadron Leader, from service after finding her guilty on two charges for causing death and bodily injury by rash and negligent driving at the Air Force Station, Bareilly, in 2015. The deceased woman’s husband had been injured.

While setting aside the trial and conviction of the officer, the Tribunal ruled that she would be reinstated in service but remain under suspension till the conclusion of the retrial. The retrial shall commence from the stage of recording the statement of the accused officer. In its order of September 11, the Tribunal’s bench observed that the accused officer had been deprived of a valuable right to put forth her explanation in relation to the incriminating proof led against her and the same thus vitiated the findings of the GCM.