Wing commander booked for raping flying officer in held Srinagar

HELD SRINAGAR: A 26-year-old flying officer with the Indian Air Force (IAF) in held Srinagar has filed a police complaint alleging that a wing commander at the same base raped her on New Year’s Eve, adding that several lapses in the internal investigation led to further harassment and mental torture, local officials said on Tuesday.

Based on her complaint filed on September 8 at held Srinagar’s Budgam police station, the Jammu and Kashmir Police have filed a first information report under section 376(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and launched an investigation into the allegations, the officials cited above added.

The woman officer — posted at the held Srinagar air force station — also sought legal action against five “perpetrators”, including an air commodore, three group captains and a wing commander, while alleging a string of lapses in the internal investigations that led to “continued mental harassment”. The FIR, however, did not give details of their involvement in the case.

According to the allegations in the FIR, seen by Hindustan Times, the incident took place eight months ago after a New Year’s party at an officers’ mess on December 31 when the wing commander allegedly asked the complainant if she had received a gift on the occasion.

When she said she hadn’t, the officer allegedly took her to his room -- where the gifts were kept and his family wasn’t present -- and forced her to perform oral sex on him, she alleged.

“I repeatedly asked him to stop doing it and tried to resist it in all ways possible. Finally, I pushed him and ran away,” her complaint said. The woman officer was commissioned into IAF two years ago and this is her first posting.