The Hindu : Karnataka News : Anjali Gupta directed to resolve differences with defending officer

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 08, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Anjali Gupta directed to resolve differences with defending officer

Staff Reporter

Order follows a written submission by Gp. Capt. Kumar for relieving him from case

BANGALORE: The general court martial jury on Tuesday gave time till Wednesday morning to the Indian Air Force Flying Officer, Anjali Gupta, and her defending officer, Gp. Capt. R. Vijay Kumar, to resolve the differences between them and continue with the court martial proceedings.

The order by the jury followed a written submission by Gp. Capt. Kumar for relieving him as defending officer as Ms. Gupta had expressed a lack of faith in him.

"She is continuously expressing this. She is not considering me as her defending officer. In view of the predicament, the court may please relieve me and enable me to attend to my duties in the Command Headquarters, New Delhi," he said.

Gp. Capt. Kumar, the fourth officer to defend Ms. Gupta in this case, repeated the submissions he had made orally on June 2 and 3.

He was prompted to do this by Ms. Gupta's refusal to give him her points for cross-examining the second witness, Master Warrant Officer M. Singh. "I could not get her view and line of defence in the two hours given to me," he said.

Rules read out

This made the Judge Advocate, Sq. Ldr. Suhag, to go into the orders passed on the issue earlier.

He read out the orders of June 2 and June 3, when Gp. Capt. Kumar was asked to continue defending Ms. Gupta till her civilian defending counsel (advocate) appears before the court.

He also read out several rules, including those related to the appearance of a civilian advocate and the role of the presiding officer.

On the presiding officer, Gp. Capt. V. Ganesh's role, he read: "It is his duty to see that the accused has a fair trial, and that the accused does not suffer any disadvantage in consequence of her inability to examine or cross-examine witnesses or otherwise."

This obviously referred to Ms. Gupta still being unable to bring a civilian defence counsel.

Passing the order, Gp. Capt. Ganesh said: "I would advise both the accused and the defending officer to mutually resolve the differences so the court can proceed with the case."

Documents produced

Earlier, Master Warrant Officer Singh, who is an Adjutant in an IAF Training Command unit in Bangalore, produced copies of the documents related to Ms. Gupta's attachment (temporary duty) to the Training Command and to the IAF Headquarters in New Delhi.

The officer also produced a copy of the page of the officer's movement register. Ms. Gupta is alleged to have amended in the register, without authorisation, her date of movement from the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment to the Training Command and the Indian Air Force Headquarters.

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