Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat said on Friday Major Leetul Gogoi will be given “exemplary punishment” if he is found guilty after the Rashtriya Rifles officer was detained along with a woman and a local man on Wednesday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Srinagar.
“If anyone in the Indian Army, at any rank, does any wrong and it comes to our notice then strictest action will be taken,” Gen Rawat was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
“If Major Gogoi has done something wrong then I can say that he will be given due punishment and the punishment will be such that it will set an example,” he added.
Rawat was speaking to reporters at Pahalgham while on a visit to the Army Goodwill School.
Gogoi was briefly detained by the local police after he was involved in a row with the staff of a hotel, where he had booked a room in his name online, in the summer capital of the state.
The woman and the man came to the hotel and asked to go to Gogoi’s room and got into an altercation with the staff when they were not allowed. The hotel staff called the police.
The Jammu and Kashmir police have initiated an inquiry into the incident involving Gogoi. A senior police officer said that “the probe is still on and no conclusion has been reached so far”.
Gogoi was in the news after he tied a Kashmiri civilian to the front of his jeep in April last year during the by-elections for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, apparently in an attempt to prevent stone-pelters from targeting his convoy. The incident led to a massive human rights controversy.
Gen Rawat awarded Gogoi a commendation card for his “sustained efforts” on counter-insurgency operations.
