New Delhi, May 25: Signalman Satyam Kumar who was given the death sentence by a summary general court martial pressed the trigger of his Insas rifle and did not release it till the magazine was emptied of all 20 bullets into the limp form of his superior, Havildar Padmarajan L.

The non-commissioned officer, who was the guard commander that night, was in deep slumber in the restroom of the quarter-guard in the Udhampur military garrison, eyewitnesses have told the court martial.

Kumar is the 11th soldier in the Northern Command area alone in 24 years to be given the death sentence by the court martial. In each of the instances, the soldiers have killed comrades-in-arms — some of whom were senior to the killer(s), some junior and some of the same rank.

Earlier that evening of October 28, 2006, Kumar had had an argument with Padmarajan. So enraged and determined was Kumar that he waited for Padmarajan to go to sleep after the altercation. Then he crept into the restroom, fired till his magazine was emptied, and waited for colleagues and officers to come to the spot.

When the colleagues and officers reached the quarter-guard, they could not see anything because it was pitch dark in the hills at 11.45 on a cold winter’s night.

It was a few minutes before they could switch on the lights. When they did so, Kumar was still standing there, frozen with rage and fear contorting his face. He had also shot at another soldier, Balwan Singh.

Kumar surrendered without a fight, submissive and meek, according to the accounts of the three officers who made up the bench for the summary general court martial that gave — “awarded” in army jargon — the death sentence. There were 11 witnesses for the prosecution.

“It is not as if the death penalty is given in all cases of ‘fragging’,” said army spokesman Colonel Sudhir Sakhuja. “Punishment is meted out case by case.”

This means that soldiers found guilty of killing colleagues may not necessarily be given the death sentence. He said the army was also guided by the Supreme Court directive that it should be given in only “the rarest of the rare” cases.

Kumar’s deed “was an act which hits at the very ethos of military discipline”, the army said in a statement today. “The superior was killed in a pre-meditated fashion, without provocation and in cold blood.”

Kumar is barely 21 years old and unmarried. He is from Tarabari in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district. Padmarajan was from Pathanamtheta in Kerala, married with two children aged 9 and 5.

The court martial’s sentence to Kumar does not mean that he will immediately go to the gallows or face the firing squad. The Northern Command and army headquarters will review the proceedings and the Union government has to confirm the sentence.

Defence minister A.K. Antony would have to agonise — as he already is with the case of Sepoy S.C. Behera who was given the death sentence on similar charges on February 26 — over the confirmation.

If the Centre confirms the sentence, Kumar will have the option of approaching the Supreme Court and going right up to the President with a clemency plea.

Senior army officers cannot recall any case of a death sentence given by a court martial being actually executed.

Kumar is currently in military custody. But his crime is categorised as a “civil offence” and he would have to be handed over to civilian authorities subsequently.