A court in Srinagar on Saturday directed the police to submit a status report on the investigation into an altercation involving Major Leetul Gogoi on May 23. The Army ordered a court of inquiry against Gogoi on Friday.
The chief judicial magistrate of Srinagar told the police station in Khanyat to submit its report by May 30 after Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, the chairperson of the International Forum for Justice and Human Rights in Jammu and Kashmir, filed an application.
“Astonishingly only after an hour, [the] police let free Major Gogoi, associate Sameer Malla and also the girl without following the due procedure of law,” The Tribune quoted Untoo as saying in his plea. He alleged that the police had acted in a “most mechanical and casual manner” and its role in the “sensitive matter” was “alien to law”.
On May 23, Gogoi and two others were taken to the Khanyar police station after officials received a call from Hotel Grand Mamta at 11 am. The girl and another person had reportedly come to meet the Army officer but a scuffle broke out when the hotel administration did not let them through. The girl’s mother has claimed that Gogoi had raided their house at night twice in the past.
Gogoi was at the centre of a controversy in April 2017 when he gave orders for a civilian to be tied to the bonnet of a vehicle as a human shield during a bye-election to discourage protestors from throwing stones at security personnel.
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