Woman Army officer court martialled, gets RI for graft

She was also charged with visiting a defending officer

Major Singla, who was incidentally the first woman officer of the Army to face the general court martial (GCM), was ordered to be cashiered and was awarded one-year rigorous imprisonment by a GCM court which gave its ruling here on Wednesday night.

The GCM, presided over by Col Sanjeev Jose, held her guilty for corruption and professional impropriety under sections 69 and 63 respectively of the Army Act. Maj Singla was charged for allegedly accepting Rs 10,000 from a defence counsel in a court martial case of a jawan in which she was the judge advocate in November 2004.
She was also charged with improperly visiting a captain who was the defending officer in the same case and reportedly asked him not to divulge any information to the media regarding the GCM.

Major Singla was commissioned into the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of the Indian Army  in 2005. In the same year she was accused of accepting money from the accused in a court martial trial.

The Chandimandir-based  western command headquarters had ordered a court of inquiry against Major Singla in 2007. She was also accused of not attending the GCM trial. On February 1 this year, she was arrested for not attending the trial.

On February 9 she was granted bail by the Indian Armed Forces Tribunal which noted that corruption money was neither recovered nor an attempt was made to recover it.

Two other instances in which women defence officers have been held guilty and dismissed from service include Capt Poonam Kaur of the Army Supply Corps — the first woman to be dismissed from the Army on charges of levelling false accusation of physical and mental harassment against senior officers, and Flying Officer Anjali Gupta who was dismissed by the Indian Air Force earlier this week on charges of indiscipline.