Staff suicide weighs Indian Army down

 The number of Army personnel who took their own lives far exceeds those who succumbed to enemy bullets last year.

“As many as 99 Army personnel committed suicide last year, while 65 were killed in security operations. Of the 99, 23 cases were registered in field areas and 76 in peace areas,” Army officials said, adding that the number of personnel committing suicide has gone down over the years.

In 2010, 115 personnel committed suicide while the figure stands at 110 for the year 2009. Number of suicide deaths for 2007 and 2008 are 142 and 150 respectively.

In a few cases, families of the personnel had alleged murder, following which inquiries were conducted to probe into the complaints.