New Delhi: An Army general court martial has recommended the cashiering of seven personnel, including a major general, for alleged extrajudicial killings of five people in Assam way back in 1994. Cashiering entails dismissal of the convicted personnel, who are also to be stripped of their rank, pension and salary. 

“Three officers along with four jawans were cashiered by summary general court martial (SGCM) held at Dinjan has pronounced judgment in an encounter case of 1994 in Northeast. The court martial has recommended life imprisonment also for the guilty,” Army sources told MyNation. 

The senior-most officer in the case is Major General AK Lal who was commanding the 18 Punjab Regiment at that time.

Sources said the sentence of life imprisonment needs to be confirmed by the competent authority and this may take two to three months. The SGCM was ordered into the infamous Dangari encounter in which five youths namely Prabin Sonowal, Pradip Dutta, Debajit Biswas, Akhil Sonowal and Bhaben Moran were brutally killed.

The SGCM had begun proceedings on July 16 at the Laipuli Army Camp under the headquarters of 2 Mountain Division.

The Dholla-based 18 Punjab Regiment of the Indian Army had allegedly picked up nine people — AASU leader Prabin Sonowal, Pradip Dutta, Debajit Biswas, Akhil Sonowal, Bhaben Moran, Matheswar Moran, Gunin Hazarika, Prakash Sharma and Manoranjan Das from different locations of Doomdooma circle in Tinsukia district between February 17-19 in 1994 and detained them at the Dholla Army Camp following the killing of Rameswar Singh, the general manager of the Assam Frontier Tea Limited at Talap Tea Estate by ULFA militants.