By IANS,
New Delhi : Former army chief V.K. Singh Friday opposed the plea of another former army officer seeking cancellation of bail in a defamation case, accusing the latter with maligning Indian Army.
Opposing the application of Lt. Gen. (retd.) Tejinder Singh, Gen.(retd.) Singh told Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja that it was moved for maliciously prosecuting top serving and retired officers of the Indian Army.
“The application moved by the complainant seeking cancellation of bail of the answering (V.K. Singh) respondent is vehemently opposed as the same is merely an outcome of the whims and fancies of the complainant who is pursuing a sinister anti-national agenda of maligning and demanding the Indian Army for reasons best known to him by maliciously prosecuting top serving and retired officers of the India Army,” said the former army chief.
He told the court that such applications seeking cancellation of bail in bailable offences only demonstrates the intent of the complainant which is purely aimed at harassing him.
Terming the contents of the application are merely figments of imagination, Gen Singh requested the court to dismiss it with exemplary cost.
Tejinder Singh Aug 8 moved the application for cancellation of the bail granted to the former Indian Army chief and four other accused July 20.
His advocate Anil Aggarwal contended that all the five officers might tamper with the evidence as four of the five accused had not appeared in court.
The court was hearing a defamation case filed by Tejinder Singh against Gen. V.K.Singh and four other officers for allegedly making libellous statements against him to the media and accusing him of bribery in an all-terrain truck purchase deal of the army.
Alleging that the officers misused their official position, power and authority to level false charges against him, Tejinder Singh also named Army Vice Chief Lt. Gen. S.K. Singh, Director General Military Intelligence Lt. Gen. B.S. Thakur, Additional Director General Public Information Maj. Gen. S.L. Narsimhan and Directorate General of Public Information Staff Officer Lt. Col. Hitten Sawhney.
Meanwhile, the court granted exemption from personal appearance to all five accused in the case.
V.K.Singh, then then army chief, had disclosed in an official release that he was offered a kickback of Rs.14 crore by a retired defence officer in exchange for clearing a tranche of 600 all-terrain “sub-standard” Tatra trucks for the army.
Denying all allegations, Tejinder Singh had said that in the press release of March 5, the army headquarters publicly accused him and a group of serving officers of the military intelligence of conspiring to create a rift between the army chief and the government.