“Are media persons, covering recording of the Summary of Evidence (SoE) in the Siachen ‘Killings’ Case, under observation of the Army?” Asked the media persons today when they noticed an unidentified person sitting at the media gallery of SoE.
The person in plain cloths, about whom the question was asked, was present in the recording room since last two sessions. Media persons regularly covering the SoE when found a new face among them, they asked about his whereabouts.
The man, indicating that he is not from any newspaper, said that, “Main aise hi baitha hoon.”Contrary to the common practice of taking detail note of every person going inside the SoE room, this person was not asked to make any entry in the register available at the security officer.
The register had the entry for Major Surinder Singh the accused in this case, Col. K.D. Singh the first prosecution witness, Ashok Kumar Yadav the independent witness and four journalists. When the media persons were sitting in the waiting room, they also ‘feel’ presence of an observer around them. During the tea break, the issue was raised with Major Ajay Shah the officer dealing with the security matters during the SoE.
“Is anyone allowed inside the recording room without having any entry in the security register?” was their question. “He is the court observer and it is a common practice having them during the SoE,” replied Shah.After a few minutes it was informed that the said ‘observer’ is Lt. Col. Natrajan and he is going to enter his name in the register.
When the morning session was adjourned, the media persons asked Lt. Col. Natrajan the purpose behind his visit at the SoE as a court observer. First he said that he was on leave and came at SoE just to see it. “Anyone including law students can come and observe this,” he said.
After few seconds, replying yet another question, he said that he is an observer and will keep coming as and when required. Today it was an eventful day outside the recording room. During the tea break, Col. K.D. Singh suddenly entered in the rest room where the journalists were sitting. Fuming at the reports coming in media, Col. Singh said that the press is trying to defame him. “Do you know that I was one of the most respectable officer of the Indian Army? And you are trying to defame my image. Even if there is a slip of memory from my side, media start thinking that the case has taken a new turn,” he said.
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