In a relief to journalist Poonam Agarwal and Kargil war veteran, Deepchand Singh, the Bombay High Court on Thursday quashed and set aside the criminal prosecution initiated against her by the Nashik police, for abetting the suicide of an Indian army soldier and under the Official Secrets Act for entering the Deolali Army camp to conduct a sting operation, inside a prohibited area. A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre while allowing the petition filed by the two accused said "The sting operation is not against national interest and cannot be termed as spying. If she had intended to spy then she would not have been before us now." On March 27, 2017, a police station in Nashik had booked Aggarwal and ex-military man and Kargil war veteran Deepchand Singh for the suicide of a jawan after a sting expose highlighting the prevalent "sahayak system" in the Army. The jawan, identified as Lance Naik Roy Mathew was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a room. The video featured Mathew accusing his seniors of harassment. Earlier, the court had seen the sting operation in their chamber. On Thursday, when the public prosecutor and the advocate for the army which sought to intervene in the case, raised objections, the bench said: "Why are you being so vindictive." The two accused have claimed that deceased committed suicide because his seniors scolded him, not because of them or because of the video that was aired on a news website." The Indian Army had approached the high court after two years of filing the plea seeking to intervene in the case, arguing that its image was tarnished because of the sting operation carried out by Agarwal. Background Aggarwal and Kargil war veteran Deepchand Singh for the suicide of a jawan after a sting expose highlighting the prevalent “sahayak system” in the Army

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