The Supreme Court has acquitted an Armyman accused of the serious charge of being an ISI agent after it found how the Army botched up the case by failing to produce any evidence to nail his guilt.

The accused Armyman, Raji Hasan, worked as a sepoy at the Central Ordinance Depot, Kanpur and was dismissed from service with a seven-year rigorous imprisonment after being found guilty by a Court Martial proceeding. Except for his extra-judicial confession obtained during his military custody, there was no evidence to corroborate the Army story that the sepoy in question was in touch with an ISI agent to whom he passed sensitive details and even put him in touch with another armyman of the same unit.

Failing to take the confession alone as evidence to convict the accused, the apex bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said, “There are a number of enemy agents roaming around. How do you establish that this man was in contact with the enemy agentIJ” The apex court echoed similar concerns as raised by the Armed Forces Tribunal which had set aside the sentence and paved way for his reinstatement.

Challenging the Tribunal’s order of September 17, 2015, the Army, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh, submitted to the apex court that the confession made by the accused was in military custody which is unlike police custody where there are chances of third degree torture. But the accused had raised the plea that he made the confession under duress as he was put under tremendous pressure.

Even the Tribunal had failed to buy this argument raised by the Army. Pulling up the Army top brass, the Tribunal had held, “It is a pity that on such a sensitive issue involving national security, the trial was conducted without collecting evidence which not only should have been irrefutable but also corroborating.”

The apex court too questioned the evidence put forth by the Army in the present case. “You must get independent, corroborative evidence. You cannot take us for a ride by suggesting that the only question involved is whether military custody is equal to police custody. Tribunal had referred to the Court Martial proceedings and found no evidence. If there was evidence, you should have produced it before the Tribunal.”

It was the Army’s case that Hasan joined the Defence Security Corps (DSC) Platoon in 1997. He was posted initially at Ordinance Depot, Kanpur and was shifted to Eastern Air Command in November 2000. The Army slapped charges of treason and violation of military discipline for associating with a Pakistan ISI agent Mohammad Anwar alias Ikramuddin, passing on sensitive information to him about the Army, and introducing another soldier from his unit to the same agent before being transferred to Eastern Air Command. The Army told the Tribunal that Hasan had visited Pakistan in 1980 on a tourist visa. He overstayed his visit and was sent to Pakistan jail where Pakistan Police offered him to work as an agent. He agreed upon which he was released from jail and sent back to India on a Pakistani passport. On his return to India, he initially enrolled with Territorial Army but later joined DSC and worked for an ISI agent at Kanpur.