Order on summoning Army Chief General V K Singh in defamation case reserved

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today reserved for May 18 its order on summoning Army Chief General V K Singh and four others on a criminal defamation complaint filed by former Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh.

"The case is reserved for order on May 18," Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja said after conclusion of the arguments on behalf of Tejinder Singh, who sought summoning of Army Chief and four others for responding to the allegations against them.

"You can issue notice to them and they can come and explain their part to you," Tejinder Singh's counsel Anil Aggarwal said.

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

Aggarwal, on an earlier date of hearing had said the Army Chief had made a complaint to the CBI on April 10 that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore to strike a defence deal while the press release on the issue of 'off-the air-monitoring' was made by the Army on March 5.

Referring to the provisions of Army Act, the counsel had said a serving person cannot communicate with the media directly and if he has to pass on something, he has to do it through the Ministry of Defence.

Tejinder Singh, a former Director General of Defence Intelligence Agency, had filed the defamation complaint against the Army Chief and four other Army officials rejecting the allegations that he had offered the bribe for clearing a deal for 600 "sub-standard" vehicles.