New Delhi: A General Court Martial (GCM), also known as a military court, on Monday recommended the dismissal of Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for shooting down his Mi-17 helicopter. , as it approached the Srinagar Air Force Station in 2019. Due to which six Indian Air Force personnel and one civilian were killed.
The IAF’s Court of Inquiry (CoI) had found him guilty of violating standard operating procedures and making the call to shoot down the helicopter as the then Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the air force station.
While it is just a recommendation, which has to be ratified by the IAF chief for actual implementation, sources said there is a stay order by the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the implementation of the GCM when the officer approached it.
The traumatic event occurred a day after the event Balakot Strike When the Pakistani Air Force retaliated. The helicopter took off and crashed within a span of 10 minutes when the air skirmish was 100 km away, and airbases and military installations in the area were on high-triggered alert.
As informed earlier It was only in 2019, when the Court of Inquiry was underway by ThePrint, that it was established that the helicopter was shot down by friendly fire in what was then called the “fog of war” by sources.
The GCM was also against Wing Commander Shyam Naithani, who was the then senior air traffic control officer. Although he is acquitted of four charges, he receives a severe reprimand for one charge, meaning his career within the IAF is over.
Chowdhary, on the other hand, was found guilty on five major counts out of the nine charges against him, including violating instructions issued by the Air Headquarters to identify all aircraft operating north of latitude 3200 N with friends or foes. Had a warrant to operate. IFF) is on. IFF is a transponder based identification system.
The Mi-17 took off from the base without IFF. Sources said that if the system was operational, the COO would have come to know that it was his own helicopter after coming on the radar.
He was also found guilty of ordering the helicopter to be shot down by the base’s air defense unit, which used Israeli Spyder systems to shoot down the helicopter.
ThePrint was first to report In August 2019, the CoI had found two officials guilty and GCM proceedings were to be initiated against both.
In October 2019, the then Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria did accepted The helicopter incident was a “big mistake”.
(Editing by Zinnia Ray Chowdhury)
Read also: The Inside Story of the Balakot Strike – The Story of the IAF Officer Who Planned and Executed It