Court to pronounce order on defamation plea against Army Chief

A Delhi court today reserved for April 26 its order on summoning Army Chief Gen VK Singh and four others named as accused in a criminal defamation case filed by former Lt Gen Tejinder Singh who had denied having made Rs 14 crore bribe offer to him to strike a defence deal.

A Delhi court on Saturday reserved for April 26 its order on summoning Army Chief Gen VK Singh and four others named as accused in a criminal defamation case filed by former Lt Gen Tejinder Singh who had denied having made Rs 14 crore bribe offer to him to strike a defence deal.

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Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Jasjeet Kaur reserved the order on the criminal complaint after Tejinder Singh's counsel said that his client had already recorded his statement and pre-summoning evidence in support of his complaint.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar, who had on April 10 reserved the order on Tejinder Singh's complaint, did not hold proceedings on Saturday as he was attending a training session and the matter was listed for hearing by MM Kaur.

Tejinder Singh, a former director general of defence intelligence agency, had filed defamation complaint against the Army chief and four other Army officials trashing the allegations that he had offered the bribe for clearing a deal for 600 "sub-standard" vehicles.

Besides the Army Chief, he has named Vice Chief of Army Staff SK Singh, Lt Gen BS Thakur (DG MI), Major General S L Narshiman (Additional Director General of Public Information) and Lt Col Hitten Sawhney posted in the media cell, accusing them of misusing their official positions, power and authority to level false charges against him.

Tejinder Singh had contended that all the five formed a direct chain of command with the Army chief being the final arbiter.

During the last hearing, he had said the allegation against him of having offered bribe on behalf of Tatra and Vectra Ltd, which supplies vehicles to BEML was absolutely "false, ill-founded and concocted."