Delhi court summons former Army Chief VK Singh

A Delhi court today ordered former Army Chief General VK Singh and four others to appear before the court by 20 July in a criminal defamation case filed by Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh. On Thursday, the court had reserved its order for today after going through the file related to the issuance of the 5 March press release which had accused Tejinder Singh of offering a bribe of Rs 14 crore to the erstwhile Army chief.[caption id=“attachment_337082” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“General (Retd) VK Singh. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] The file was submitted to the court by defence ministry’s under secretary R Sunder. The court had also recorded on Wednesday his statement during an in-camera proceeding in which he said some of the documents placed were “privileged”. The court had earlier said it would pass an order only after going through the file relating to the publication of the Army’s 5 March press release in which Tejinder Singh was accused of offering a bribe to the former Army chief. The court had earlier said it was “prima facie” satisfied that the 5 March press release was defamatory” as “ex-facie” serious allegation of “bribery” has been made against Tejinder Singh, who had a long and distinguished career in the Army. Besides VK Singh, the court has also summoned Vice Chief of Army Staff S K Singh, Lt Gen BS Thakur (DG MI), Major General SL Narshiman (Additional Director General of Public Information) and Lt Col Hitten Sawhney. Tejinder Singh had 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 complaint rejecting the allegations that he had offered the bribe for clearing a deal for 600 “sub-standard” vehicles. PTI