In a disturbing incident, an Indian army jawan, who had featured in a sting video last month about the ‘sahayak’ (orderly) system in the military, has been found dead in an abandoned barrack in Maharashtra’s Deolali Cantonment on Thursday, CNN News 18 reported.
According to reports, Lance Naik Roy Mathew is reported to have committed suicide as he was found hanging from the ceiling of the barrack.
But there is some mystery surrounding the details of his death. Here is a simple breakdown of the case:
Mysterious circumstances
- There are two accounts of where Roy’s body was found hanging. While most reports claim the body was found hanging inside the Deolali Cantonment barrack, an IB Times report claims that the body may have been found hanging near a pilgrimage site in Nashik.
- Reports state that the body had been found in a decomposed state, that suggests that Roy had died at least three days before the body was discovered. No suicide note or last message of any sort was discovered.
- The victim had been serving in the army since 2004.
Missing since the sting
- According to Roy’s family, the soldier had been missing since the release of the sting video in which he was seen doing chores for his senior official like walking the latter’s dog and taking his children to school
- Roy also appeared, along with two other jawans, for an interview with a local Marathi broadcaster and spoke against the Sahayak system. He spoke of the harassment and mistreatment of orderlies by senior army officials.
- Under the The Orderly System (Sahayak System), which started in the British era, junior officers are paired with senior officials, and the former are expected to act as the latter’s ‘helper and buddy’, helping the senior officer in his tasks.
Kin suspect foul play
- The victim’s family has alleged foul play and demanded a probe into the death of the jawan, Hindustan Times reported.
- According to the HT report, Roy called his wife the day before he went missing, saying he made a big mistake by appearing for the interview. The report also claims that the army did not inform Roy’s family properly about the cause or circumstances of his death.
- IB Times also reports that Roy told his family that he was being held captive and being subjected to mental torture.
- Since Roy belonged to the state of Kerala, his wife has petitioned Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan to intervene in the matter.
The social media mess
- The death follows a spate of whistle-blowing videos from members of the Indian armed forces. In the past two months, three such videos have surfaced from the Army, the Border Security Force (BSF) as well as from the Central Resrve Police Force (CRPF) with soldiers complaining about issues such as the bad food quality, harassment by seniors etc.
- Lance Naik Yagna Pratap of the Indian Army was sent for treatment for aggression soon after his video surfaced. He has since alleged mental torture.
- BSF jawan Tej Bahadur who had posted video of poor meals served to jawans in border areas has also alleged a conspiracy to implicate him for exposing corruption. There is an internal probe into his video presently.
- Members of armed forces posting their grievances on social media has been attacked by senior army officials as well as the current army chief General Bipin Rawat as being against the code of conduct. They’ve been encouraging Jawans to directly approach their seniors in case of problems rather than posting them on social media.
- The Army Chief has also defended the ‘buddy system’, claiming it forms the basis for the chain of command and brotherhood within the army, claiming that it was part of the system for buddies to do chores for his officer and that it was not exploitation by senior ranking officials.
Feature Image Source: Reuters