New Delhi: A General Court Martial (GCM), also known as the military court, Monday recommended the dismissal of Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury for shooting down Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) own Mi-17 helicopter as it approached the Srinagar Air Force station in 2019 that led to the death of six IAF personnel and a civilian.
The IAF’s Court of Inquiry (CoI) had found him guilty of violation of standard operating procedures and taking the call to shoot down the helicopter as the then Chief Operation Officer (COO) of the air force station.
While this is just a recommendation, which has to be confirmed 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 after the officer approached it for the same.
The tragic incident took place a day after the Balakot strike when the Pakistani Air Force had launched a counter strike. The helicopter took off and crashed within a 10-minute period when the air skirmish was on 100 km away, and the region’s airbases and military installations were on high-trigger alert.
As reported first by ThePrint in 2019 itself, while the court of Inquiry was on, it was established that the helicopter was shot down in friendly fire in, what was then attributed by sources as, “fog of war”.
The GCM was also on against Wing Commander Shyam Naithani, who was the then Senior Air Traffic Control Officer. However, he has been acquitted of four charges but got severe reprimand for one charge, which means that his career growth within the IAF is over.
Chowdhury, on the other hand, was found guilty of five major counts of the 9 charges against him, including for violating the instructions issued by the Air Headquarters, which warranted all aircraft operating north of latitude 3200 N to operate with Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) on. The IFF is a transponder-based identification system.
The Mi-17 had taken off from the base without the IFF on. Sources said that had the system been on, the COO would have known that it is their own helicopter after being picked up making an approach on the radar.
He was also found guilty of ordering the shooting down of the helicopter by the base’s air defence unit which had used the Israeli Spyder system to take down the chopper.
ThePrint was the first to report in August 2019 that the CoI had found the two officers guilty and GCM proceedings were to be initiated against the two.
In October 2019, then IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Bhadauria had admitted the helicopter incident was a “big mistake”.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also Read: Inside story of attack on Balakot — from IAF officer who planned and executed it