Nearly 23 years after Amar Ashok Paldhe, an Indian Navy diver, died under mysterious circumstances, his mother Anuradha Paldhe has sought Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s intervention for ordering a fresh Board of Inquiry into her son’s death.
Releasing a copy of the letter to Parrikar at a Press conference here, Anuradha said that she had chosen to write to the Defence Minister in the wake of a recent verdict by the Hyderabad High Court, which directed the Indian Navy to constitute a fresh Board of Inquiry within six months and communicate its findings to her.
Anuradha, a resident of Dombivli in the neighbouring Thane District, said on Tuesday that after having exchanged a series of letters with the authorities during the last 23 years, she had chosen to bring to the Defence Minister’s attention “the painful journey of a mother and the ordeal that I have been put through”.
“I have been fighting a long and tedious battle of 23 years in search of truth and to seek justice for my 25-year-old deceased son. I hope and sincerely believe that at least now wise counsel would prevail in the Indian Navy and they will hold fresh Board of Inquiry at the earliest as directed by the court,” Anuradha stated.
“Therefore I am constrained to address this communication to you bringing to your knowledge the painful journey of a mother and the ordeal that I have been put through.
“I am not asking for any favours but proper holding of a Board of Inquiry for finding of truth in the interest of justice. I pray and hope that my voice will not go unheard this time,” she said.
Ashok Paldhe was serving as Seaman-I in the Indian Navy. On September 21, 1993, his parents were informed of his disappearance while participating in a peace-time operation of helo-jumping at Kakinada Coast under the Eastern Naval Command.
On the following, Ashok’s parents were informed that his body was found by the fishermen at Kakinada Coast.
“Though the Navy showed normal courtesies, the real cause of death was not disclosed. Under the guise of confidentiality of Defence Services, the response to any inquiry in that respect was evasive,” she said.
The parents having come to know about the existence of two serious ante mortem injuries found on the body, were trying to inquire further but to no avail.
In their effort to seek justice for their son, the parents filed a case in 1994 in the Kakinanda Sessions Court, which in 1997 ruled that their son had died under “mysterious circumstances” and that the Navy should conduct an inquiry into the death.
Nothing happened afterward. Anuradha, meanwhile, lost her husband on March 13, 2007.
later the Hyderabad High Court, in April 2013, while dismissing an appeal filed by the Navy noted: “The cumulative effect of all these acts and omissions is that the death of the son of the plaintiff occurred under suspicious and mysterious circumstance”. The court also directed the Navy to pay compensation to Ashok’s family.
Not satisfied with the High Court’s order, Anuradha subsequently filed a writ petition in the High Court which finally on June 7 2016 ordered a fresh probe in to the death of Amar.
“For the foregoing reasons the writ petition is disposed of directing the respondent — the Naval Authorities — to constitute a fresh Board of Inquiry (BOI) and such exercise may be completed within a period of six months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and communicate the findings of BOI to the petitioner, who is the mother of the deceased sailor Amar Ashok Paldhe,” the high court has said in its June 7 order.