An armyman told a military court in Jodhpur on Saturday that he enacted fake encounters, reported false gunning down of enemy soldiers and resigned after Major Surinder Singh, an accused in the case, asked him to do so after the fake killings were exposed.
Nayak Bhuwan Bahadur Thapa said he, along with riflemen Yamraj Guru and R B Thapa, helped construct bunkers which were demolished in the fake encounters filmed by Major Singh.
He said rifleman Sham Bahadur Thapa was asked to lie down in the demolished bunker to be videographed as a dead enemy soldier.
Bhuwan Bahadur Thapa admitted he wrongly reported the killing of an enemy soldier in the August 24 fake encounter and two others in a similar action on September 21.
He said he was involved in the August 24 encounter in which he fired two guided missiles at the bunker which missed the target. The bunker was later demolished by firing a rocket, Thapa said.
He said they were made to swear before god that they would not reveal the fake killings.
But Major Singh asked him and two others to seek voluntary retirement when the killings were exposed. They tendered their resignations in October last year, Thapa said.
Thapa is the third army personnel to tell the court that army faked encounters in Siachen. Earlier JCO Phatte Bahadur Thapa and Havaldar Neer Bahadur Ale admitted the encounters were fake.
Thapa said the then battalion commander, Col K D Singh, had visited the forward post on July 2 last year and ordered post commander Phatte Bahadur Thapa to prepare for launching an attack.
Major Singh has alleged that he staged fake encounters at the instance of Col Singh, who in his deposition has told
the court that the officer facing doom was trying to tarnish a senior's image.
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