Major Leetul Gogoi, the Army officer from Assam, infamous for using a human shield on his military jeep during the 2017 Srinagar by-poll, was punished by the army with loss of seniority of six months after he was found with a local girl in a Srinagar hotel in May 2018.
The court martial was complete and the ordered was ratified by the senior officers. The driver cum Territorial Army soldier, Sameer Malla, who was found with Major Gogoi in that hotel was also punished by a court-martial.
The court-martial had found Major Gogoi guilty of "fraternising" with a local women in violation of official orders on the subject and for "being away from the place of duty while in an operational area".
Major Gogoi wanted to book a hotel in Sri Nagar with the women in the company with a false ID when the Hotel owner raised alarm. Major Gogoi sought to play with 'counter-insurgency informant" card but that was overruled by the Court Martial.
On May 23, 2018, Major Gogoi was detained by police following an altercation with the hotel staff when he was allegedly trying to enter inside with an 18-year-old Kashmiri woman.
The woman had also stated that she had gone out with Major Gogoi of her own will, besides disclosing that she had become a friend of the Army officer through his fake Facebook profile, where he had named himself Ubaid Arman. She, however, refused to testify before army court.
Major Gogoi licked up a major controversy after he tied a local man to the front of his military jeep as a 'human shield' against stone pelters in Budgam district during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election on April 9, 2017.
Despite strong public outrage on Major Gogoi's action, army headquarter had awarded him the COAS commendation card for the act triggering another round of major human right violation protest.
