Court hears arguments on complaint against Army Chief

Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja, to whom the case was transferred by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Bansal, fixed May 14 for concluding of arguments on summoning the Army Chief and four others as accused in the case.

During the hearing, the court inquired from Tejinder Singh about the role of each individual and asked if he has any other evidence against the officials apart from their reply to the legal notices sent by him.

"During the arguments, reference has been made to a number of documents including the Defence Technical Publicity Rules, 2004, framed by the Ministry of Defence.

"The documents and evidence of the witnesses require some reading. Put up for conclusion of arguments on the point of summoning on May 14," the magistrate said.

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

Anil Kumar Aggarwal, the counsel appearing for Tejinder Singh, said the the Army Chief made a complaint to CBI that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore to strike a defence deal on April 10 while the press release on the issue of 'off-the air- monitoring' was made by the Army on March 5.

"Had there been any case or complaint or preliminary inquiry against me (Tejinder Singh) before March 5, then I would not have come here for the defamation case. There was nothing against me before March 5," the counsel said.