A Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF), posted at Air Force Station, Srinagar, has been booked for rape by the Jammu and Kashmir Police following allegations of sexual assault levelled against him by a woman officer also posted at the same station.
The FIR was filed at the Budgam police station on September 8 under Section 376 (2) of the IPC which was in force at the time of the alleged incident on January 1, 2024. The section deals with rape committed by a member of the armed forces deployed in an area by the Central or a State Government.
The woman officer has also alleged “continuous harassment, sexual assault, and mental torture” that she has been subjected to over the last two years, primarily by authorities at the Air Force Station, Srinagar.
In her complaint, which is part of the FIR, the woman officer has alleged that she was forced to perform a sexual act on him after the New Year’s Party held at the Officers’ Mess, Air Force Station, Srinagar, on December 31, 2023.
She has alleged that the sexual assault took place in a room at around 2 am on January 1 after the Wing Commander asked her to come to a room to receive a New Year gift.
“I went into a mental shock being new to the atmosphere in the forces. I was embarrassed and… broken to that extent … lacking courage to report. I can’t describe the mental agony, being an unmarried girl… treated in such a heinous manner… the incident and nightmares put me in the dilemma of whether to discuss or be quiet, finally I took a call and decided to fight,” the woman officer said in her complaint.
The officer has accused senior IAF officers of the station of not taking her complaint seriously. The woman officer alleged that she was forced to approach the J&K Police to lodge an FIR after finding that no action was being taken by the IAF authorities.
Meanwhile, an IAF official said that the Indian Air Force is cooperating with the local police in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam in probing a complaint of alleged sexual assault that was lodged by a woman flying officer against a Wing Commander.
