<p>In a 15-minute meeting, Antony assured the Chandigarh-based grieving mother that her son’s death would be re-investigated to ensure that the family got the justice. Kohli’s son, Captain Sumit Kohli from the 18 Rashtriya Rifle, was found dead with a gunshot wound in Lolab in Kashmir on April 30, 2006—just a month after he was awarded Shaurya Chakra for gallantry. He was 26 then.<br /><br />While the Army claimed that the young officer committed suicide due to family problems, his mother said Sumit was murdered because he knew who were behind the killing of four porters in a fake encounter in Lolab in April 2004 and assured their families of justice.<br /><br />However, Col Rahul Pandey, who was Sumit’s then Commanding Officer in the 16 Rashtriya Rifles, refuted the mother’s contention and maintained that it was a suicide case.<br /><br />After submitting a memorandum to Antony, Kohli accompanied by her daughter Namrata and her lawyer told reporters that she has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation to go to the bottom of the truth as she did not have faith in the Army system.<br /><br />Asked what was the basis of her suspicion, Kohli said: “He was a Shaurya Chakra awardee and a brave officer. He could not have done this.”<br /><br />Alleging that some Army personnel were behind her son’s death, she said: “I will not blame the whole Army for this, but there are some people who got him out of their way as he knew everything happening inside. This incident happened on the last day of his posting in the Lolab valley in Kashmir.”<br /><br />In fact, the Kohli family suffered another major blow just days after Sumit’s death. His father suffered a stroke and died a day after his son’s cremation. <br /><br />Demanding access to original documents related to her son’s death, Veena said: “It should be found out how he died. I had earlier thought that whatever the Army was saying was correct, but I want his post-mortem report so that I can be fully satisfied. I can’t believe he had committed suicide.”<br /><br />Responding to her charges, Pandey said it was a suicide and there were Army procedures under which civilian doctors conducted the post-mortem and submitted report to the higher-ups in the Army.<br /><br />Kohli said her attempts to seek information under the RTI was first stonewalled as the Army declined to part with information on the ground that since the information was related to Jammu and Kashmir, it could not be revealed. She finally got the information only when she approached the Delhi High Court and received a favourable order.<br /><br />“After the documents reach the higher-ups in the Army, it does not return to the unit. I never knew she had any suspicion over the officer’s death. If she had called me or written to me earlier, I could have got the documents for her,” Pandey said.<br /></p>
<p>In a 15-minute meeting, Antony assured the Chandigarh-based grieving mother that her son’s death would be re-investigated to ensure that the family got the justice. Kohli’s son, Captain Sumit Kohli from the 18 Rashtriya Rifle, was found dead with a gunshot wound in Lolab in Kashmir on April 30, 2006—just a month after he was awarded Shaurya Chakra for gallantry. He was 26 then.<br /><br />While the Army claimed that the young officer committed suicide due to family problems, his mother said Sumit was murdered because he knew who were behind the killing of four porters in a fake encounter in Lolab in April 2004 and assured their families of justice.<br /><br />However, Col Rahul Pandey, who was Sumit’s then Commanding Officer in the 16 Rashtriya Rifles, refuted the mother’s contention and maintained that it was a suicide case.<br /><br />After submitting a memorandum to Antony, Kohli accompanied by her daughter Namrata and her lawyer told reporters that she has sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation to go to the bottom of the truth as she did not have faith in the Army system.<br /><br />Asked what was the basis of her suspicion, Kohli said: “He was a Shaurya Chakra awardee and a brave officer. He could not have done this.”<br /><br />Alleging that some Army personnel were behind her son’s death, she said: “I will not blame the whole Army for this, but there are some people who got him out of their way as he knew everything happening inside. This incident happened on the last day of his posting in the Lolab valley in Kashmir.”<br /><br />In fact, the Kohli family suffered another major blow just days after Sumit’s death. His father suffered a stroke and died a day after his son’s cremation. <br /><br />Demanding access to original documents related to her son’s death, Veena said: “It should be found out how he died. I had earlier thought that whatever the Army was saying was correct, but I want his post-mortem report so that I can be fully satisfied. I can’t believe he had committed suicide.”<br /><br />Responding to her charges, Pandey said it was a suicide and there were Army procedures under which civilian doctors conducted the post-mortem and submitted report to the higher-ups in the Army.<br /><br />Kohli said her attempts to seek information under the RTI was first stonewalled as the Army declined to part with information on the ground that since the information was related to Jammu and Kashmir, it could not be revealed. She finally got the information only when she approached the Delhi High Court and received a favourable order.<br /><br />“After the documents reach the higher-ups in the Army, it does not return to the unit. I never knew she had any suspicion over the officer’s death. If she had called me or written to me earlier, I could have got the documents for her,” Pandey said.<br /></p>
