Defamation suit against Army Chief: Court pulls up Tejinder Singh

New Delhi: A metropolitan magistrate hearing the defamation suit filed against Army Chief General VK Singh today pulled up petitioner Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh, a retired officer, for "overreaching and pressurising the court."

Metropolitan magistrate Sudesh Kumar was expected to decide today whether to summon the Army Chief and four others in the case. Instead, he transferred the case to another court, that of an additional chief metropolitan magistrate, saying the counsel for the complainant appears to have "lost confidence over the courts of law". It will now be heard on May 7.

"The tone and tenor of this application reflects an apparent attempt to overreach, browbeat and pressurise this court into falling into lines of dictates of the counsel for the complainant. It seems the counsel for the complainant, on each and every date, is taking advantage of wide media coverage this case is receiving and has been repeatedly pressurising this court for shorter dates," metropolitan magistrate Sudesh Kumar said.

"The counsel for the complainant appears to have lost confidence over the courts of law and legal procedure... In my considered view, vide this application, counsel Anil Kumar Aggarwal has exhibited lack of confidence over the court and the manner in which he had tried to dictate to this court as to what is required to be mentioned in the proceeding order sheets and as to what type of inquiries this court has to make reflects his lack of faith in this court. Hence, under these circumstances, I do not want to proceed further with the trial in the present complaint," he added.

Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh claims that allegations made against him in a March 5 press release issued by the Army are "completely false and concocted". One of those allegations is that he offered General VK Singh Rs. 14 crore in bribe on behalf of a company called Vectra in 2010. The Army Chief had caused a stir when he made that allegation in an interview in March.

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

The matter is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which recorded Gen Singh's statement last month and on Wednesday questioned Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh.

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Ravi Rishi, the CEO of Vectra, which provides Tatra trucks to the Army, has also been questioned by the CBI.  Mr Rishi has denied that Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh either formally or informally represented Vectra as a middleman.

Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh had testified before the court last month and sought that the court summon the Army Chief.

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The retired Army officer had also approached the Supreme Court last month, asking it to sanction a CBI inquiry against the Army Chief for allegedly ordering the illegal monitoring of phones in the Defence Ministry. Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh says the CBI should raid the homes and offices of Army Chief General VK Singh and his relatives.