Figures ‘exaggerated’ ??

Jodhpur, July 24: Colonel K.D. Singh the prosecution witness in the Siachen ‘Killings’ Case while appearing at the recording of the Summary of Evidence (SoE) here today said that the ‘exaggerated’ figure about the number of enemy kills, shown in the 5/5 Gorkha Rifles presentation, was just a ‘human error of compilation’ or a ‘typographical error’.

Answering a question asked by Major Surinder Singh the accused in this case, Col. Singh said that the video presentation, prepared on the order of the then General Officer Commander of 3, Infantry Division, was just an informational document and ought not be given ‘undue importance’.

Col. Singh today failed to convince Major Singh about the anomaly about the figure of enemy kills claimed by the battalion during its Siachen tenure. Col. Singh was provided all the situation reports and the special situation reports reporting the action of any forward company for the period of July 7 to October 7, 2003.

“After perusing these situation reports and adequately satisfying yourself, can you tell the number of enemy persons killed or injured by the battalion during this period,” asked Major Singh. Col. Singh after compiling the data from all the situation reports and said that according to the documents, 32 enemy soldiers were killed, one probably killed, seven were wounded or killed and six others were probably injured or killed.

After this, the similar question was asked while giving the situation reports of ‘action’ of the period after October 7 to November 24, 2003. Col. Singh replied that these reports claim kills of four enemy personnel. At this point referring a part of Col. Singh’s statement, Major Singh said that at that time, he had claimed that the battalion during its Siachen tenure had claimed 45 enemy kills.

Col. Singh claimed that his statement was not false. He added all the figures including those reported as ‘probably killed’, ‘wounded’ and ‘probably injured or killed’. The sum of these comes to 50. “From this, if we subtract five kills, which were reported by you after faking the encounter, the result is 45,” said Col. Singh.Now, Major Singh shown one of the slides of the video presentation that was prepared and sent on October 10, 2003 for submission to the higher headquarter. The annotated slide reports the enemy kills as 46.

Whereas, by the date of preparation of the said presentation, only 32 ‘confirmed kills’ were reported by the situation reports. When asked about the reason behind this, once again Col. Singh said that the Load Manifest Officer of the battalion, Major Vikram Sharma had prepared the presentation and he had not seen it before dispatch.

“It may be a human error of compilation or a typographical error. These presentations were meant for information and ought not be given undue importance,” he added. Explaining the possible logic behind the figure of ’46 kills’, Col. Singh said that, till the preparation of the said presentation, he had not informed Major Sharma about the fake kills reported by Major Surinder Singh and hence he had included those five kills in this figure.

While stating this, Col. Singh contradicted his previous statement in which he had said that the two kills reported on September 21 were not included in the October 10 presentation as he himself had instructed Major Sharma for its exclusion.