A Delhi court is likely to pronounce on Friday its order on summoning Army Chief General VK Singh and four others on a criminal defamation complaint filed by former Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh.
Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja had on May 14 reserved the order after hearing the arguments on behalf of Tejinder Singh who has sought summoning of the Army Chief and four other top officials to respond to the allegations against them.
Besides the Army Chief, 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, accusing them of misusing their official positions, power and authority to level false charges against him.
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.
Defamation case: Will court summon Gen VK Singh?
On the last date of hearing, counsel for Tejinder Singh had told the court that the persons named in the complaint should be summoned to appear before it to explain their part.
Advocate Anil Aggarwal, who appeared for Tejinder Singh, had told the court that 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.
Defamation case: Will court summon Gen VK Singh?
He had also referred to the provisions of the Army Act saying 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.
