Meditation At Court

Jodhpur, July 28: Colonel K.D. Singh the Commanding Officer of the 5/5 Gorkha Rifles during its Siachen tenure is trying his best to keep himself free from the psychological pressure at the times when Major Surinder Singh the accused in this case is scanning all of his statements and answers for contradictory points at the Summary of Evidence (SoE) proceedings here.

Today, Col. Singh spared few minutes to do some stretch exercises when the officer recording left the recording room for consulting legal experts on certain issues. He also kept his eyes closed as if he is meditating and answered most of the questions in morning session with the same gesture.During the tea break he share some jokes with the media persons.

“You have listened jokes about various characters but I have some jokes for you about the media,” he said and with a self-generated joke, tried to establish that media also used to exaggerate reports. Today, Col. Singh found himself in trouble when Major Singh asked him the meaning of ‘taking relevant part of the video footage’ in the process of preparation of video presentation of the battalion.

“This is a self-explanatory term which conveys meaning itself,” replied Col. Singh. At this point, the Major demanded straight answer of the question and Brigadier Philip Campose the Officer Recording SoE also said that Col. Singh must give appropriate answer to the question.Now, Col. Singh produced a long answer explaining what he meant while using the term ‘relevant part’ of the video footage.

It may be mentioned here that Major Singh has already questioned the inclusion of the video footage of the action reported by ‘A’ Company on August 24, 2003. This action was faked and though was included in the video presentation forwarded to the higher headquarters. Major Singh asked him the detail of his visits to headquarter of the ‘A’ Company headed by Major Singh.

“If you had some doubts about the varsity of the video of August 24, then why you not visited the fire location during your visit to the forward posts?” asked the Major.Col. Replied that for a Commanding Officer in the Central Siachen Glacier, it was not always possible to visit all the forward posts. On the question about the locations of the night stays during his official visits to the forward areas, Col. Singh said that he had not remembered the detail.