New Delhi:
In the defamation suit against the Army Chief, the government has been asked to explain by April 27, if it sanctioned a press release by the Army that listed a series of allegations against retired officer Lt General Tejinder Singh.
Tejinder Singh sued the Army chief in a Delhi court yesterday.
Today, in another petition in the Delhi High Court, he has asked the centre to clarify whether it authorized the press release and has also asked the government to take action against General Singh.
On March 5, the Army released a statement that said the retired officer had offered bribes on behalf of Tatra-Vectra, a company that supplies trucks to the Army. The statement also said that Tejinder Singh had been allotted a flat in the Adarsh building in Mumbai, a high-rise which was meant to provide affordable homes to war widows and veterans.
On Monday, the Army chief said that he had been offered 14 crores by a lobbyist to clear 1600 "sub-standard" trucks. The chief did not name the lobbyist or the company involved but Defence Minister AK Antony said that the Army chief had informed him about the meeting and had named Tejinder Singh as the middleman.
The retired officer has said he did not offer General Singh any money, and that he met Singh in May-June 2010 to discuss the chances of him being hired as the head of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a highly specialised technical intelligence gathering agency.
In his defamation suit filed yesterday, Tejinder Singh has also named Vice-Chief of Army Staff S K Singh and three other officers. He says that along with the Army chief, they misused their official positions, power and authority to level false charges against him.
The Army's press release was issued amid allegations that its intelligence wing was monitoring phone calls in the Defence Ministry with off-the-air interceptors. The statement said that a section of officers was trying to cause a rift between the Defence Ministry and the Army. Tejinder Singh had served as chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency. The Army chief said Tejinder Singh had been interrogated earlier about purchasing off-the-air interceptors without required clearances.
The Army's statement added that Tejinder Singh had offered bribes on behalf of a company named Tatra and Vetra, which supplies vehicles to the Army.
"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 allotees and no investigation or FIR has been registered against me. I am only a simple investor," Tejinder Singh has said in his lawsuit.