Taking part in Operation Sindoor doesn't give you immunity: SC tells commando accused of dowry death

Noting that taking part in 'Operation Sindoor' did not give him immunity, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to exempt from surrendering a Rashtriya Rifles Black Cat Commando convicted of dowry death of his wife.

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A Bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice K Vinod Chandran, however, gave convict Baljinder Singh two weeks to surrender in view of his current posting. It issued a notice on his petition and asked the respondents to file their replies in six weeks.

The Bench was hearing his petition against the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order dismissing his appeal and upholding the 10-year rigorous imprisonment awarded to him.

On behalf of the petitioner, senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary submitted that the man was a participant of Operation Sindoor. "For the last 20 years, I have been a Black Cat Commando posted in Rashtriya Rifles,” Chaudhary told the Bench.

"That doesn't give you immunity from committing atrocity at home. This goes to show how physically fit you are, and the manner in which alone you could have killed your wife, strangulated your wife," the Bench said.

Maintaining that the petitioner was convicted of a serious offence, the Bench concluded that it wasn't a fit case to grant him exemption even as it issued notice on his petition.

An Amritsar court had in July 2004 convicted petitioner Baljinder Singh under Section 304-B (dowry death) of the IPC for the July 18, 2002, death of his wife within two years of marriage. The woman was subjected to harassment and cruelty in her matrimonial home for dowry, the police alleged.