The Royal Nepali Army has court martialled four junior soldiers on charges of attempted extortion in Banke last year.

Promotions and grades have been suspended of two similar low ranking personnel who kept quiet about the incident while a major has been forced to resign because he did not investigate the matter thoroughly. Brigadier BA Sharma told us one sergeant, two lance corporals and a rifleman ganged up with civilians, carried civilian rifles and extorted villagers. When one of the villagers refused to give the money they had demanded, he was kidnapped for a few hours. When rumours spread that they were soldiers, a major stationed in the same district was assigned to investigate. His report said no army personnel was involved.

But, we were not convinced. After further investigation we found they had tried to hush up the matter, Sharma said. Among the culprits, the rifleman has been imprisoned for three years while the other three will be behind bars for two years. The civilians have been handed over to Banke police since the amended Military Act does not allow the army to prosecute civilians.