THE ARMED Forces Tribunal (AFT) has stayed any action on a report of the Court of Inquiry against the two Indian Air Force officers behind the shooting down of a helicopter in friendly fire in Budgam in February 2019, a day after India carried out air strikes in Balakot, Pakistan.
The AFT cited “non-compliance” with various statutory provisions by the Court of Inquiry as the reason for the stay.
Six IAF personnel and one civilian had been killed after the Mi-17 V5 had gone down on February 27, 2019, in Budgam, Kashmir. In April 2019, the Court of Inquiry had held the two officers responsible for the incident, which happened during a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani aircraft, saying they had not ensured that there weren't any friendly aircraft in the zone.
Read| Shooting down Mi-17 in Budgam was a ‘big mistake' on our part: IAF Chief
The two officers, Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury, who was chief operations officer at the Srinagar airbase, and Wing Commander Shyam Naithani, the in-charge of Air Traffic Control that day, had challenged this, saying the government had refused to share the Court of…