Fake encounter: Colonel sacked

The Army made its first dismissal for a fake killings case, dismissing a Colonel and slapping five years loss of service on a Major.

The former, Col H.S. Kohli, commanding officer of an artillery regiment, and the Major, whose name the Army has not disclosed, were found guilty of taking photographs of civilians splashed with tomato ketchup and claiming the photos were of terrorists they had killed in an encounter, to obtain gallantry decorations.

‘‘The two were found guilty of reporting an encounter which had not taken place,’’ an Army spokesperson said. Kohli’s claim of killing separatists was made in 2003 at Bada Nagadun in Assam. Army norms, especially in anti-insurgency operations, predicate promotions and bravery decorations on the number of enemies — in this case militants — soldiers kill and prove they killed.