A Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force has been charged with rape following allegations from a female Flying Officer that she was sexually assaulted by the officer at Air Force Station, Srinagar.
According to a report by NDTV, the woman claimed she had endured harassment, sexual assault, and mental torture for the past two years.
A senior police officer, cited by the Indian news agency PTI, confirmed that after the complaint was filed, an FIR under “relevant sections of the law” was registered at Budgam police station in central Kashmir on Saturday. “We are aware of the case. The Air Force Station in Srinagar was approached by the local Budgam police station on the subject. We are fully cooperating,” said a senior IAF official, according to PTI.
What are the woman IAF officer’s allegations in the FIR?
According to Hindustan Times, the woman officer alleged in her FIR that she was forced to perform a sexual act on the Wing Commander following a New Year’s party held at the Officers’ Mess, Air Force Station, Srinagar, on December 31, 2023.
She claimed that the assault occurred in a room around 2 a.m. on January 1, after the Wing Commander had asked her to come to receive a New Year’s gift.
In the FIR, the officer stated that she was taken to a room where the Wing Commander sexually assaulted her, despite her attempts to resist and ask him to stop. “It took me a while to register what had happened. I was afraid and didn’t know what to do as I had previously been discouraged from reporting similar incidents,” she said.
The woman officer further alleged that after the incident, the Wing Commander visited her office and behaved as though nothing had happened. A colleague later encouraged her to file a complaint, though she admitted she initially lacked the courage to report the incident due to embarrassment and emotional distress.
She also accused senior IAF officers at the station of not taking her complaint seriously. “It took two months for the station to assemble an Internal Committee (IC). On April 2, 2024, the committee was finally formed, but the bias of the station authorities in protecting the offender was heartbreaking,” she stated. She further alleged that her medical examination was delayed until she insisted multiple times, and it was only conducted on the last day of the committee’s investigation.
“The ongoing harassment has severely impacted my mental health. I live in constant fear, under 24/7 scrutiny, and my social life has been completely disrupted. The harassment has driven me to suicidal thoughts, and I feel utterly helpless. My daily life has become unbearable, and authorities closely monitor and discourage my social interactions. I’ve endured this for too long and am now at my breaking point,” she said in the FIR.
