IAF group captain held over suicide of sacked woman officer
Bhopal, Sep 12 (IANS) Indian Air Force Group Captain Amit Gupta was taken into custody Monday for questioning in the suicide of Anjali Gupta, the first woman flying officer to be court martialled, police said Monday. Police said she committed suicide due to alleged failure of a live-in relationship with Amit Gupta.
The body of Anjali was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the house of Amit Gupta, 51, Sunday night in the state capital.
"We have taken Amit Gupta into custody for interrogation," Rajesh Bhadoria, the City Superintendent of Police told IANS.
Bhadoria said that they were to file a case against Amit Gupta under section 306 of the Indian penal code.
A resident of Delhi, Anjali was working in a private firm in Bangalore. On way to Banglore, she had stopped over at Bhopal to meet Amit Gupta Sep 7.
"The parents of Anjali Gupta have alleged that Amit had promised Anjali marriage since long and on his refusal, she committed suicide," Bhadoria said.
Bhadoria added: "The family alleged that Amit had always convinced Anjali that he would divorce his wife and marry her. According to them, Anjali had visited Amit's home several times."
The official said that Anjali's mother, Uma Gupta, had also written several times to the IAF authorities about Amit Gupta denying that he promised to marry her daughter.
Meanwhile, the post-mortem of Anjali's body was done late in the afternoon and her body cremated at Subhash Nagar area in Bhopal.
Anjali, a former Flying Officer with the IAF, was 29 when she was dismissed after a general court martial found her guilty of charges including embezzling funds and insubordination and recommended in December 2005 that she be "cashiered" -- stripped of her rank and discharged.
After a petition by her, then Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi diluted the sentence to "dismissal".
She was accused of embezzling funds, throwing food at a superior, insubordination, indiscipline and having demonstrated "conduct unbecoming of an officer".