Tuesday, December 21 2004 15:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Major Surinder Singh, a Gorkha Rifles officer, was today (Dec 21, 2004) dismissed from service and sentenced by an Army court martial to undergo three years rigorous imprisonment for faking encounters with the enemy on the world's highest battlefield Siachen glacier last year.

Singh was sentenced after the court found him "guilty of all charges" after the court martial proceedings, according to an Army spokesman in New Delhi.

The sentence was handed out by the court in Jodhpur today, the spokesman said quoting reports reaching Army Headquarters in New Delhi.

"Major Surinder Singh has been found guilty of all charges by the General Court Marshal and is cashiered from the Army and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years," the court said.

Singh, already under suspension, was being tried for faking encounters during his battlation's forward deployment tenure in the glacier in August-September last year. The Major had filmed the fake encounters to buttress his claims to bravery awards and favourable mention by higher formation commanders.

This is the third time in matter of weeks that military courts have handed out stiff sentences to errant officers. Earlier, a senior colonel was dismissed from service on charges of faking encounters in north-east and a brigadier hauled up for selling canteen liquor to private parties.