By Syed Nashir Ali Gillani
Srinagar, May 23: Major Nitin Leetul Gogoi, infamous for making a man his human shield in 2017, and a ‘minor’ Kashmiri girl were briefly detained by police on Wednesday following his driver’s altercation with the staff of a hotel he had booked a room in.
Gogoi had booked a Deluxe Room for two in the hotel ‘The Grand Mamta’ for May 23 and 24.
He arrived at the hotel at around 10am. However, after the hotel opposed to the presence of the alleged minor, he had to vacate the room in a humiliating condition.
“After a few minutes of his arrival, we saw a minor girl with him. We presumed that she was a local. We asked for her identity proof. After going through the Aadhaar, we noticed that she was Kashmiri girl from Budgam. Her age was 17,” said Mudasir Ahmad, Manager of the hotel.
Mudasir said the hotels in Kashmir do not provide rooms to those having Kashmiri girls with them.
“We told Gogoi that we could not provide him the room. He sat in the lobby for a while,” he said.
Gogoi was about to leave when his driver entered into a tussle with the people present there, worsening the things for Gogoi, said an eyewitness.
“We called police. They took Gogoi, the Kashmiri girl, and the driver, who was later identified as Sameer Ahmad, to the Police Station. They have taken the CCTV footage as well. He had come in a private car having number JK04E 2088,” he said.
Soon after the incident, police issued a press note, saying: “After recording the statement at Police Station Khanyar, Gogoi was handed over to his unit.”
The press release mentioned that the station received a call at 11 am from the hotel, where an altercation had taken place.
“A police party was deputed to the hotel. It came to fore that one woman (name withheld) and a person namely Sameer Ahmad of Budgam had come to see some person, but the hotel receptionist didn’t allow them to meet the person. Meanwhile, the police party reached the spot and brought all the persons to the Police station Khanyar,” it reads.
“Subsequently, it was learnt that the woman had come to meet the army officer. The identity and the particulars of the army officer have been collected by the police as well.”
“After the recording of the statements, the officials were handed over to their unit. The statement of woman is also being recorded for probing the matter.”
Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kashmir range, S P Pani has ordered a probe with Superintendent of Police North, Sajad Ahmad, has been appointed as an enquiry officer.
