The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Wednesday told the chief judicial magistrate of Srinagar that Major Leetul Gogoi had faked his identity on Facebook and posed as a Muslim man to befriend a Kashmiri woman with whom he was found in a hotel in Srinagar, Firstpost reported. Gogoi was detained after an altercation with the hotel staff on May 23.
The police said the woman was 19 years old, and not a minor as earlier suspected, and had gone to the hotel of her own volition, the Hindustan Times reported. Neither the woman nor the owner of Hotel Grand Mamta had lodged a formal complaint against Gogoi, they added.
The police submitted the status report after human rights activist Mohammad Ahsan Untoo filed an application with the chief judicial magistrate last week. Untoo alleged that Gogoi had used the name Ubaid Arman on Facebook to befriend the woman. He and another soldier, Sameer Malla of Budgam, had even shared their mobile numbers with the woman. On the day of the incident, the soldiers told her to wait for them at Magam in Budgam district. Then they travelled to the hotel in a private vehicle.
After the incident, the police handed over the soldiers to their units and sent the woman home with her maternal uncle. The woman’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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