An Indian colonel has been dismissed and a major suspended for faking killings by splashing tomato ketchup on civilians and passing them off as dead separatists - in the hope of being awarded.

An army spokesman said Colonel H.S. Kohli, commanding an artillery regiment in Assam, had faked the killing of some separatists last year by making some civilians pose in photographs as enemy casualties after splashing their bodies with tomato puree.

"The colonel tried to use the photographs to back his claim for a gallantry award and was subsequently tried and found guilty in a court martial," the army spokesman said.

"The colonel lost his job while a major, who connived with his superior in the fake saucy encounter, was suspended for five years."

The colonel apparently took photographs of some civilians in an isolated place in southern Assam's Cachar district after pouring tomato sauce on their bodies and making the pictures look like an encounter, with blood splattered over the bodies. 

"The fraud came to light when the colonel's claims for a gallantry award was processed. It was indeed weird and bizarre to find him claiming a bravery award for the kills, which in fact did not take place at all," the spokesman said.

The saucy scandal is the latest to rock the Indian Army after the Siachen scandal in which a major is accused of inventing enemy killings for the sake of gallantry awards.

According to new norms, Indian Army officials are being graded and awarded promotions and bravery awards on the basis of the number of terrorists they capture and kill.

--Indo-Asian News Service