Court takes cognisance of Tejinder Singh's defamation case

New Delhi, March 29 (IANS) A Delhi court Thursday took cognisance of a defamation case filed by Lt. Gen. (retd) Tejinder Singh against army chief Gen V.K. Singh, who has accused him of bribery.

Metropolitan magistrate Sudesh Kumar listed the matter for recording of evidence for April 10.

'I have heard the arguments ... take cognisance and put up for pre-summoning of evidence from April 10,' Magistrate Kumar said.

Tejinder Singh has requested the court to summon and initiate proceedings against the army chief and others for making the libellous statement in media. He approached the court after the army chief named him as the person who offered him Rs.14 crore bribe in exchange for clearing a tranche of 600 sub-standard vehicles for the army.

Tejinder Singh has refuted the bribe allegations.

Tejinder Singh told the court that from March 1 to March 4, various media reports carried the allegations of illegal off-the-air monitoring of call records of senior officials.

He added that March 5, a press release issued by army headquarters levelled serious allegation against him.

Tejinder Singh told the court that the media cannot be addressed directly by army officials.

He denied all the allegation against him and said that neither any investigation was conducted nor any case registered against him in the case of Adarsh society, where he has been allotted a flat.

Tejinder Singh's counsel Anil Aggarwal and S.M. Pandey also termed the allegations levelled against their client as baseless. They said the allegations were levelled against the retired Lt General without any proof.

Alleging that the officers misused their official position, power and authority to level false charges against him, the retired Lt General in his complaint has also named S.K. Singh (vice-chief of Army staff), Lt Gen B.S. Thakur (DGMI), Major General S.L. Narsimhan (Additional Director General of Public Information) and Lt Col Hitten Sawhney (GSO-I Directorate General of Public Information).