Josy Joseph

New Delhi: Already facing a shortage of leaders, the armed forces have been left redfaced by desertions by several young officers recently. Many of them had been refused premature retirement – so they ran away.

The cases, slowly building up into a trend, are being zealously guarded from public knowledge by the embarrassed military. The Army refused to reply to a detailed DNA questionnaire on the issue.

A senior officer said the details would “embarrass” the armed forces, which take pride in their officers leading from the front.

DNA investigations reveal that over a dozen Army, Navy and Air Force officers may have run away in the past five years. Most of these deserters were officers whose written requests for quitting the armed forces were turned down. Among those who ran away in recent times were at least two doctors and a fighter pilot.

There are no clear numbers, at least in the public domain.

Many military sources said the trend was most visible in the Army.

“We have had many cases of jawans deserting the ranks. But it is for the first time that we are seeing a number of officers running away,” admitted an Army officer.

In one case, a military doctor who deserted his post in the North-East was arrested from his hometown in Maharashtra.

He was court-martialled, where he admitted that he was unable to take care of his financially weak family with his meagre salary.

The court-martial was “speeded up” and he was dismissed, helping him get what he wanted — leave the Army and take up a civilian job. Another doctor who deserted was posted in Jammu and Kashmir; he is being courtmartialled.

A few months ago, an Army Major who went on leave from his posting in the Jammu region did not return on time raising suspicions. When his request for quitting the Army was turned down, he had told his colleagues that he would run away. The Army traced him to his Mumbai residence and his court-martial is going on at a base in Uttar Pradesh.

Almost 2,000 young officers have quit the Army since 2001, before completing the mandatory 20 years required for pension. But of late, the Army has tightened its rules on premature retirement.

Indian Air Force sources insist that there is no “trend” of young officers running away on being refused voluntary retirement.

But at least one fighter pilot, who was posted with a MIG-21 training squadron in the North-East, ran away in the recent past and is yet to be traced.

The IAF receives a huge number of applications from pilots who want to leave early and take up lucrative jobs in the booming aviation sector.

The IAF has over the past few years tightened rules for relieving pilots, and even other officers, before their scheduled retirement dates.

Source : DNA