In a rare order for award of dismissal from service and rigorous imprisonment to a serving officer, the General Force Court of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has dismissed a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) from service and ordered him to undergo a rigorous imprisonment of 18 months on charges of corruption in a dozen cases.
The order against DIG UP Balodi was passed by Judge Attorney, GFC, Camp at 25th Battalion of SSB, GHitorni, Sudhanshu Kumar on Wednesday.
The order titled “GFC Trial of UP Balodi, DIG” read, “The court re-assembled on 30.06.2021 pursuant to adjournment of 29th June, 2021. The Court finds the accused guilty to all the 12 charges and awarded sentence ‘To Suffer Rigourous Imprisonment for 18 months along with dismissal from service’.”
“The sentence is announced as being subject to confirmation,” added the order, a copy of which has been circulated to the Inspectors General Administration and Personnel of the Forces headquarters here.
The order has also been sent to IG Training, frontier headquarters sector headquarters across the country as also Recruit Training Centre at Alwar.
Officials said it is one of the rare cases when such punishment has been awarded by the General Force Court (GFC) of any Central paramilitary force or Central Armed Police Force (CAPF).
All the Central paramilitary forces have their respective Act and Rules to deal with disciplinary proceedings within their respective organisations.
These Acts, passed by the Parliament, are mostly copies of the Armed Forces Acts.
However, the Acts and corresponding rules vary from organisation to organization in keeping with their respective requirements.
The GFC consists of officers within the organisations who preside over the disciplinary proceedings.
The SSB is the designated Central paramilitary force to secure friendly borders with Nepal and Bhutan and is also the Lead Intelligence Agency on these two frontiers.
Officials confirmed the development and recalled that the last such instance was reported two-three years back when a Commandant was dismissed from service but he was spared rigorous imprisonment.