The captain of INS Sindhuratna will now face a general court martial (GCM) for the mishap on board his Kilo-class submarine, which killed two officers, injured several sailors and proved to be the final trigger for Admiral D K Joshi to resign as Navy chief in February last year.While Commander Sandeep Sinha will undergo disciplinary action in the GCM, six other officers have been awarded "severe displeasure" - a black-mark in their records preventing any promotion, foreign posting, course and the like for them for two years.
The Commodore Commanding Submarines of Western Naval Command, S R Kapoor, and two of his officers are among the six to face the administrative action.
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From previous reports at the time of the incident, faulty cables caused the mishap. The Commander will now defend himself, but senior officers above him across the command chain take no responsibility for the state of the Kilo-class submarine? It is easy to pin all blame on the CO, but he must also be given credit for bringing 92 crew back along with the submarine. How many Naval incidents are there across the world where an accident of this proportion has had such an outcome? Had it not been for the timely actions of the crew, the human casualty could have been much higher and more devastating.
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