Jawan's suicide: Family demands re-postmortem

A day after Lance Naik Roy Mathew, from Kerala, was found hanging in an abandoned barrack in Maharashtra, Army has ordered an inquiry into the incident. Meanwhile, family members of the jawan demanded a re-postmortem and stated that they are not convinced with the explanation of Army that he committed suicide. 
 

After the jawan, who was featured in a sting operation of a media house on the feudal nature of orderly (sahayak) system in the military, was reportedly found dead, the military officials put the blame on the media for his suicide. Mathew, a native of Ezhukon in Kollam was missing since February 25, and the family was informed that his body was found hanging. 
 

The army also said that the jawan was not questioned about the video which showed soldiers performing household works of army officials. Incidentally, the website, which led the sting operation, has taken down the video. 
 

However, the family is not convinced with the explanation. "They say it was a suicide, but there were several wounds on his body and feet. They also treated the body badly and even after it reached Kerala, they kept it on the road for almost an hour," Roy's brother John told Asianet News. 
 

Times of India reports that the jawan had written in his diary that it's better to commit suicide than to face court martial. "He called home on February 25, after the sting video became public. He was afraid that he might lose the job. His phone then went off and then there was no contact with him, and he went missing. We doubt that army was questioning him," John said. 
 

The family had written to army chief after they lost contact with Roy. "We write to army chief on February 27. We even filed a complaint with the Chief Minister and Opposition leader on March 1. On the very next day, we got a call that they found his body and it was three-four days old. We don't understand why he committed suicide and that's why we have requested for a re-postmortem," he said. 
 

"He called me after seeing the video on television. He said he didn't know to whom he made all those revelations and was crying. I told him nothing wrong is going to happen and he listened to me. But later, when I tried to call him back his phone was switched off. I want to know what happened," Roy's wife Finny told media. 
 

Roy had served army for 13 years. Though he spoke to the reporter about the menial jobs that jawans were made to do, his face was not shown in the video. It was blurred out. 
 

The police are investigating whether Roy was harassed or tortured after the video became public. 
 

The Army had issued a statement to the media and said they had conducted a preliminary investigation and it is understood that series of events that were triggered by media forced him to commit suicide. They have also ordered a probe to look into the circumstances that led to his death. 
 

• sting operation
• jawan suicide
• re-postmortem
• orderly system
• Army
• sahayak
• army sahayak