The Indian Army’s Eastern Command chief on Monday said that the force has completed the Court of Inquiry into the firing incident in Nagaland where soldiers gunned down over 12 civilians in December last year.
According to a PTI report, following the killings in Oting area of Mon district in a botched operation and its aftermath, the Army started a Court of Inquiry (CoI), while the state government set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident.
“It was a case of mistaken identity and error of judgment. The Army CoI is complete and it is being examined now. We also received the SIT report and both are being analyzed,” PTI quoted General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Eastern Command, Lt Gen R P Kalita, as saying.
“If there is any lapse or fault by anyone, action will be taken irrespective of his rank,” he was quoted as saying.
“There are SOPs (standard operating procedures) to be followed. At times, deviations have taken place. Whenever there is deviation, strict actions were taken against the defaulters. In this case also, action will be taken as per the Army Act and requisite laws of the land,” the Army Commander said.
The Army’s Court of Inquiry was headed by a Major General rank officer, the report said.