Court to examine Tejinder Singh in support of VK Singh's complaint

A Delhi court on Thursday took cognisance of a criminal defamation case filed against Army Chief General VK Singh and four other top Army officials by Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh, accusing them  of misusing their official positions for defaming him.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar heard the arguments advanced by Tejinder Singh and his counsel and posted the case for recording of pre-summoning evidence on April 10.

"I have heard the arguments. I take cognisance. Put up for pre-summoning evidence on April 10," the court said, adding it would examine Tejinder Singh and other witnesses on oath in support of the complaint against the Army Chief and others.

Besides Gen VK Singh, Tejinder Singh has named Vice-Chief of Army Staff SK Singh, Lt Gen BS Thakur (DG MI), Major General SL Narshiman (Additional Director General of Public Information) and Lt Col Hitten Sawhney as accused in the case for allegedly misusing their official positions, power and authority to level false charges against him.

During the hearing, the magistrate inquired from Tejinder Singh and his counsel about the respective roles of the five accused in the case.

"Why five of them are made accused? What are their roles?," the magistrate asked.

Tejinder Singh, who himself presented his case before the court along with his lawyers, said that false allegations were levelled against him by Gen VK Singh and other accused officers to defame him.

He said between March 1 and March 4, a large number of media reports had emerged with allegations of carrying out illegal off-the-air monitoring of call records of some senior officials and on March 5, media cell of the Army Head Quarters issued a press release levelling serious allegations against him by name.

Tejinder Singh said it was alleged against him that he had managed all media reports and was also questioned for his alleged role in the purchase of off-the-air monitoring system.

He said it was also alleged that he had purchased a flat in Mumbai's Adarsh Society and had also offered bribe to the Army Chief for swinging a sub-standard defence deal in favour of a private firm.

"All allegations levelled against me are baseless. I have never been questioned for purchase of off-the-air monitoring system. I am a member in Adarsh Society but there are other 102 allottees and no investigation or FIR has been registered against me. I am only a simple investor," he said, adding the allegation that he had offered bribe was also "vague."

Advocates Anil Aggarwal and S M Pandey, appearing for Tejinder Singh, said even in the case of the alleged bugging of Raksha Mantri's office, nothing has been found but various defamatory things have been said about their client.

Regarding the alleged offering of bribe, the counsel argued that earlier it was said that the Army chief was offered R50 crore bribe but later Gen VK Singh changed it to Rs14 crore.

Tejinder Singh's counsel said the press release issued by the Army officials were illegal as they were not authorised to do so and the officials could not address the media directly.

"The tone and tenor of the said press release was not official and it was entirely defamatory. The government is not supposed to defame a person in this way and that too without even questioning him in this regard," they said, adding Gen V K Singh and other accused were acting in a "malafide manner."

On this, the public prosecutor, who was present in the court room, opposed the arguments advanced by Tejinder Singh's counsel saying if they would accuse the government, then the proceedings should be conducted "in-camera" as it was a sensitive matter and all the scribes were present there.

Tejinder Singh's counsel, however, said the prosecutor has no locus to intervene in the proceedings as it was a complaint case.

The counsel said that they had received the same replies to the legal notices sent to Gen VK Singh and other accused.

The magistrate, after hearing the arguments advanced by Tejinder Singh and his counsel, took cognisance of the complaint.

The Army Chief had earlier claimed that a lobbyist, who had "just" retired, offered him a bribe of Rs 14 crore for clearing a file relating to purchase of a tranche of 600 "sub-standard" vehicles of a particular make and he had immediately informed Defence Minister AK Antony about it.

In a suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha, Antony had said the Army chief had told him about Tejinder Singh alleged offer of bribe to him, which he heard with "shock" and asked him to take action against the person.

But the Army chief did not want to pursue the matter for unknown reasons, the minister had said.

Tejinder Singh, in his complaint, said the Army Chief had levelled false allegation against him in a press release issued on March 5 in order to get his name cleared from the phone tapping controversy.