New Delhi: The Army wants to end the service of a Major accused of carrying on extramarital relationships with the wives of two fellow officers. It has chosen administrative action over a court-martial.
The Army served the officer a show-cause notice on August 10 under Army Rules 19 and 14, asking him to explain why he shouldn’t be dismissed from service without a court-martial.
He took the matter to the Armed Forces Tribunal’s Principal Bench in New Delhi, hoping to halt the process. The tribunal refused. But it also gave him something to work with: the army must hand over the Court of Inquiry’s findings and the proceedings of the charge hearing. He had asked for both. She alleged adultery, substance abuse and neglect. She also alleged he’d had relationships with four women, two of them the wives of fellow Army officers. More enquiries followed. Then came the show cause notice, proposing administrative termination instead of a court-martial.
The Army served the officer a show-cause notice on August 10 under Army Rules 19 and 14, asking him to explain why he shouldn’t be dismissed from service without a court-martial. On October 14, a bench of Justice Rajendra Menon and Lieutenant General CP Mohanty told him to put his objections in his reply to the notice. It began in August 2023, when his then-wife complained to the Additional Directorate General of Discipline and Vigilance at Army headquarters. In October 2023, Headquarters 55 (I) Mechanised Brigade convened a Court of Inquiry into conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman, including the claims regarding the officers’ wives.
The notice says the circumstances make a court-martial inexpedient.
