Group Captain Dismissed For Attack On Own Copter, Day After Balakot Strike

SRINAGAR: Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury, then Chief Operations Officer of Srinagar Air Force Station, has been dismissed by a General Court Martial (GCM) in Delhi for a missile attack on a friendly Mi-17 helicopter on February 27, 2019. The attack resulted in the death of six Air Force personnel and a civilian. The incident took place a day after the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike in Balakot, Pakistan, reported The Tribune.

As per The Tribune, The GCM held Group Captain Chowdhury guilty on five of the nine charges. He was held guilty of not obeying the general order issued by Air Headquarters, dated July 14, 2017, which required all aircraft operating north of latitude 3200 N to operate with Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) on. He permitted Mi-17 to get airborne from Srinagar without the IFF on. He was held guilty of assigning an inbound flying object to the missile unit at 10:10 am on February 27, 2019, at 23 km from the Srinagar base for engagement by the Mission Commander, Command and Control Unit of 2258 Squadron. As a consequence, the assigned flying target, which actually was friendly copter Mi-17, was shot down by a Spyder missile at 10:14 am. The mishap caused a loss of Rs 133.31 crore to the state.

The court-martial found Wing Commander Shyam Naithani, who was the Senior Air Traffic Control Officer at the time of the incident, not guilty on four charges and gave him a severe reprimand for one charge.

The findings of the GCM and the sentence were subject to confirmation by the IAF Chief, according to Air Force officials. The High Court had allowed the GCM to pronounce the findings against Group Captain Chowdhury but ordered that these must not be given effect till the disposal of the case before it. The High Court is yet to dispose of the case, The Tribune reported.

The missile attack on the friendly Mi-17 helicopter resulted in the death of Squadron Leaders S Vashisht and Ninand M, Sergeant VK Pandey, Sergeant Vikrant Sahrawat, Corporal Pankaj Kumar, Corporal D Pandey, and Kifayat Hussain Ganie, a civilian on the ground and resident of Budgam district.

Group Captain Chowdhury had urged the GCM not to proceed with the pronouncement of the sentence till the case was in the High Court. His counsel Captain Sandeep Bansal (retd) said they would challenge the decision before the High Court.