Charged IAF officers demand access to full inquiry report after air force invokes national security clause. Usually, the court of inquiry report is shared with the accused so that they can prepare a defence. The IAF has invoked powers that enable the air chief to withhold the inquiry report for reasons of national security and only give the accused access to certain portions

New Delhi: Two officers facing court martial for their alleged role in an incident of ‘friendly fire’ resulting in shooting down of an IAF Mi-17 chopper at Budgam on February 27, 2019 — a day after the Balakot strikes — have approached the Armed Forces Tribunal to stop proceedings and grant them access to the court of inquiry report.

The case has thrown up a tricky legal question. Usually, the court of inquiry report is shared with the accused so that they can prepare a defence. In this case, however, a special clause has been invoked to not share details on grounds of national security.

Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury, the then second-in-command of the Srinagar air base as the chief operations officer (COO) who has been indicted, has moved the principal bench of the tribunal, pleading that the court martial be halted and the full proceedings of the court of inquiry report be supplied to him.

The air traffic control (ATC) in-charge, Wing Commander Shyam Naithani, the other officer indicted, has moved a similar plea at the principal bench, challenging his summons for summary of evidence as part of the court martial.

Proceedings Have Slowed Down

The IAF has invoked powers that enable the air chief to withhold the inquiry report for reasons of national security and only give the accused access to certain portions. A decision to share the report after the tribunal was moved is still to be taken and proceedings have slowed down for now, given the prevailing Covid-19 crisis.

As first reported by ET, the friendly fire incident took place over Budgam amid an air skirmish on February 27 last year with Pakistan. The air force helicopter was shot down by a Spyder air defence system within 10 minutes of taking off even as a dogfight raged over 100 km away between intruding Pakistani jets and the IAF. Six IAF personnel on board and a civilian on the ground had lost their lives in the crash.

The IAF inquiry raised questions on the role of the air traffic controller and the terminal weapons director (TWD) of the airbase, who cleared the launch of the missile. The position of TWD rotates between the air officer commanding of a base and the second-in-charge, the chief operations officer (COO). In this case, the TWD on duty was Group Captain Chowdhury.

Sources said the inquiry has revealed several violations of standard operating procedures, given that the chopper was in the local flying area (LFA) of the airbase and was in radio contact with ground controllers moments before it crashed. The chopper did not deploy any countermeasures as it did not perceive any threat in the area and received no warning before the missile was fired.