New Delhi: The commanding officer of a spy unit has been removed from his command by the Army against the backdrop of a controversy surrounding the arrest of a Lieutenant Colonel of his battalion.

“The colonel is being removed from his command less than midway into his tenure at the unit located in the Northeast region under the 3 Corps area. A new officer has been assigned to take over the unit,” sources in the Army told MyNation.

Though the Army officials refused to specify the reason for his removal from the command, sources said the officer had mishandled the case related to the lieutenant colonel who later went on to allege that the same unit had indulged in extra-judicial killings and several other crimes.

Sources said the officer could have avoided taking strong measures for dealing with a minor case.

On July 1 this year, the lieutenant colonel was allegedly arrested from his home in Imphal by armed jawans in the presence of two officers as per the directions of his unit. Later on, the lieutenant colonel’s wife filed a complaint with the police alleging kidnapping of her husband. She also held a press conference to level the charges.

The matter later reached a court where the Army authorities concerned said that the lieutenant colonel was posted in Nagaland and sent to Manipur for temporary assignment after which he had to be called back to his original headquarters.

As the issue raged, the lieutenant colonel claimed in an affidavit filed in the court that he was being harassed. In September 2016, he had written a letter about the extortions and fake killings by his unit and there was an organised campaign to trouble him.

The officer had also provided the details and dates of the alleged fake encounters in the affidavit, but Army sources have denied the charges.
The controversy snowballed as the local human rights groups started demanding a probe into the ‘extrajudicial’ killings.