Delhi court summons V.K. Singh in defamation case

New Delhi:Former Army Chief Gen. V. K. Singh and four top serving officers were today summoned as “accused” in a criminal defamation case filed by Lt. Gen. (retd) Tejinder Singh, in perhaps the first occasion when top-ranking officials have been called by a court.

Besides Gen. V. K. Singh, the other four named in the complaint and have been summoned are Vice Chief of Army Staff S. K. Singh, Lt. Gen. B. S. Thakur (DGMI), Major General S. L. Narshiman (Additional Director General of Public Information) and Lt. Col. Hitten Sawhney. They have been accused of misusing their official positions, power and authority to level false charges against Gen. Tejinder Singh.

A Delhi court directed them to appear before it on July 20.

Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja said all the five have been “summoned as accused in the present matter“.

The court, however, said the summons are only for the alleged offence of defamation as the allegation of hatching a criminal conspiracy appears to be “absurd”.

“Upon appreciating the entire evidence and material produced before this court, the allegation regarding hatching of a criminal conspiracy by respondents appears to be absurd and without any foundation.

“The accused are only being summoned qua offence as described under section 499 (defamation) read with section 35 (act done with criminal knowledge or intention) of the IPC,” the Magistrate said.

Tejinder Singh had filed the complaint alleging that he was defamed by the Army through its press release issued on March 5, which accused him of offering a bribe of Rs. 14 crore to the erstwhile Army chief.