Court issues notice to ex-Army Chief on plea to cancel bail

New Delhi: Former Army Chief General V. K. Singh was on Thursday issued notice by a Delhi court asking for his response on a plea filed by Lieutenant General (retd) Tejinder Singh, who has sought cancellation of bail granted to him in the criminal defamation case against him and four others.

Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja fixed the matter for hearing on December 9 saying that he would hear the arguments on the plea in the presence of counsel for V. K. Singh. "I will go through it (Tejinder's plea) after the other party (V. K. Singh) will be here," the magistrate told advocate Anil Aggarwal, who appeared for Tejinder.

Tejinder, who had filed a criminal defamation case against the former Army Chief and four others, had on November 25 moved a plea seeking cancellation of bail granted to V. K. Singh claiming that he had "repeated defamatory accusations" against him in his recently book released.

Tejinder, in his application, alleged the former Army Chief has written his autobiography 'Courage and Conviction' in which he made certain defamatory accusations against him despite the restrain order passed by the court on October 3.

The court, on October 3, while disposing of Tejinder's plea filed earlier seeking cancellation of bail granted to V. K. Singh, had warned the former Army Chief against making defamatory remarks targeting Tejinder saying it would lead to cancellation of his bail granted earlier.

The magistrate had also issued certain directions saying V. K. Singh should "mend his ways and refrain from repeating the defamatory remarks" against the complainant and not to use derogatory language about the court.

In his plea, Tejinder has said, "the accused number one (V. K. Singh) has violated the restrain order dated October 3, 2013 imposing conditions upon the accused for continuing the bail granted to the accused."

Tejinder said, "Despite the aforesaid order dated October 3, 2013 passed by this court, the accused (V. K. Singh) repeated defamatory accusations and remarks against the complainant (Tejinder) on page numbers 308, 309, 310 and 330, 331 and 332 of his autobiography titled as 'courage and conviction : General V. K. Singh' a book written by the accused... and released on second week of November 2013."

Tejinder had lodged a criminal defamation case against V. K. Singh, the then Vice Chief of Army S. K. Singh, retired Lt Gen B. S. Thakur (then Director General of Military Intelligence), Major General S L Narshiman (Additional Director General of Public Information) and Colonel Hitten Sawhney.

In his complaint, he had alleged that he was defamed by the Army through its press release issued on March 5 last year which accused him of offering a bribe of Rs 14 crore to the then Army Chief to clear a deal of 600 trucks, a charge refuted by him.

All the five accused had appeared before the court on July 20 last year in response to the summonses issued against them. They were granted bail by the court on that day. In his complaint, Tejinder has accused them of misusing their official position, power and authority to level false charges against him.

The press release had accused Tejinder, former chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency, and some serving officers of the Military Intelligence of planting a story in the media relating to purported tapping of some sensitive phones in the national capital.

The court had said it was "prima facie" satisfied that the March 5 press release was "defamatory" as "ex-facie" serious allegation of "bribery" has been made against Tejinder who had a long and distinguished career in the Army.