New Delhi: A senior Army officer today (May 10, 2004) charged a Major with "masterminding" the fake encounters in Siachen glacier and accused the media of trying to dub "genuine encounters as fake".

Brigadier H P S Bedi, Siachen Brigade Commander, told a private TV channel, "This incident has been actually masterminded by Major Surinder (Singh) himself. As per evidence in the Court of Inquiry by other officers, it has not been established that the Commanding Officer has given such directions."

Corps Commander, Leh, Lt Gen Arvind Sharma said "up the chain of command we look at these events very carefully. Wherever we find there seems to be something unnatural, exaggerated or doesn't fit in with the happenings earlier, naturally we'll start looking at it."

"Unfortunately, the media is overplaying it. What I feel is that they are carrying out a trial by themselves... Only one clip pertains to a fake incident where as the media is repeatedly showing that all other genuine clips are also fake which is not very correct," Bedi said.