New Delhi: A board of inquiry(BoI) has been ordered by the Coast Guard against its DIG BK Loshali who sparked a controversy by boasting that he had ordered the destruction of the mysterious Pakistan fishing boat on January 1. His statement directly put the government in dock which had claimed that the terrorists blew the boat themselves.
The BoI is likely to be followed by a court martial and dismissal from service. The order was issued after the Loshali's reply and apology to the showcause notice was found ‘unsatisfactory' by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Coast Guard director-general Vice Admiral H C S Bisht. Loshali was the chief of staff (northwest region) but not in the operational chain of command.
Loshali, at a function in Surat on Monday, had claimed that he had ordered the patrol vessel ICGS Rajratan to “blow off” the suspicious boat, and not serve the persons on board “biryani”.
In a move to nullify the claim by Loshali, the Coast Guard released a four minute video clip on Friday. The video clip shows the fishing boat being engulfed in fire before it sank around 365km from Porbandar in the early hours of January 1. The defence ministry and the Coast Guard claims that four people on board were suspected terrorists.
However, the footage, in absence of any audio, does not prove whether the four persons on the boat set it ablaze themselves or if it blew up after being hit by gunfire from patrol vessel ICGS Rajratan.
A Coast Guard official said that Commandant Chandrashekar Joshi, Rajratan's commanding officer, has categorically denied of any communication from DIG B K Loshali.
On Friday, Coast Guard dismissed any disproportionate use of force and said Rajratan had only fired warning shots across the bows of the suspected boat.
