A soldier who faced a court martial in 2019 along with his controversial company commander, Major Leetul Gogoi, for fraternising with a local woman was abducted by militants last week before being killed, police have said.

Budgam native Sameer Ahmad Malla of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry had gone missing on March 7 while travelling home from Jammu, where he was posted, to be with his wife following the birth of their second son.

His body was found on Thursday in an orchard in Budgam district. It bore no bullet marks, the injuries suggesting the 28-year-old had been bludgeoned to death.

“Case of death of soldier Sameer Ahmad Malla of Khag Budgam turned to be #terror act of #abduction & #murder,” inspector-general of police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, tweeted.

Malla had in April 2018 been detained with Gogoi and a teenage girl from a Srinagar hotel.

Gogoi had earlier triggered international outrage in 2017 by using a civilian, Farooq Ahmad Dar, as a human shield against stone throwers. But the act earned him

praise from the then army chief, General Bipin Rawat, who awarded him a commendation card a year later for his role in anti-militancy operations.

A month on came the hotel scandal, prompting an embarrassed Rawat to order a court of enquiry and pledge exemplary punishment if Gogoi “was found guilty of any wrongdoing”.

In 2019, a court martial found Malla and Gogoi guilty of “fraternising” with a local woman and “being away from the place of duty while in the operational area”.

They were, however, awarded the mild punishment of “ignominy of reduction in seniority and exit” from the Valley, along with a recommendation for a “severe reprimand” for Malla.

IGP Kumar said the police had arrested a “terrorist associate” of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and identified three Lashkar militants in connection with Malla’s killing.