New Delhi, March 2: An Indian Army court on Friday awarded the death sentence to a personnel for killing an officer, prompting fresh questions about why incidence of delinquent violence was increasing in the armed forces.

CNN-IBN news channel said a General Court Martial (GCM) found sepoy KC Behra guilty of murdering Lieutenant Colonel S Saxena on the outskirts of Srinagar on October 3, 2006.

The GCM was held near Srinagar and headed by a Colonel from a regiment other than that of Lt Col Saxena, reliable Army sources told the news channel.

The sentence is subject to confirmation by the Chief of the Army Staff and can be challenged in the civil courts.

Sepoy Behra had turned his assault rifle on his officer, Lt Col Saxena, killing him in instantly. "Behra and Saxena were of the Rashtriya Rifles counter-insurgency battalion," the report said.

CNN-IBN said while terming the sentence as "harsh," serving officers thought such a punishment was never meted out in previous cases of killing of officers by other ranks.

"Last year, deaths due to suicides and fratricide (killing of colleagues) in the armed forces touched a record high," the report said.

"Amidst an unprecedented rash of troop fratricides, the military now publicly admits that a war-without-end in Kashmir and the North-East is building up the type of troop stress which has erupted in soldiers shooting soldiers," the news channel said.

"We should have a clear direction for a soldier who has been hired for fighting, Since there is no clear-cut objective of what're we fighting for, stress factor sets in," it quoted Vice-Admiral, Armed Forces Medical Services, VK Singh as saying.