Court of inquiry into Mi-17 chopper case upheld

Chandigarh, May 24

The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has upheld the court of inquiry instituted by the Air Force into an incident in which an Mi-17 helicopter was shot down near Srinagar airfield in February 2019.

Disposing of a petition of two IAF officers, the tribunal’s Bench, comprising Justice Rajendra Menon and Lt Gen PM Hariz, today held that the court of inquiry had been correctly convened by the competent authority as per the provisions of the relevant Air Force orders.

Group Captain SR Chowdhury, who was then posted as the Chief Operations Officer, and Wing Commander Shyam Naithani, then the Senior Air Traffic Controller at Srinagar Air Force Station, had contended that the terms of reference of the court of inquiry were contrary to relevant Air Force orders. The chopper was accidently shot down by an IAF missile in February 2019, killing six personnel, during Pakistan hostility following the Balakote episode. — TNS