Tejinder Singh seeks cancellation of bail to V K Singh

Former Lt Gen Tejinder Singh, who has filed a criminal defamation case against former Army Chief Gen V K Singh and four other top Army officials, on Wednesday moved a Delhi court seeking cancellation of the bail granted to them.

Singh said the bail granted to them should be cancelled as four of the five accused have not appeared in the court and they might tamper with the evidence.

Besides the former Army chief, others who were earlier granted bail are Vice Chief of Army Staff S K Singh, Lt Gen B S Thakur (director general of Military Intelligence), Major General S L Narshiman (additional director General of Public Information) and Col Hitten Sawhney.

Except Sawhney, none of the four accused appeared before the court for Wednesday's hearing and moved applications through their lawyers for exemption from personal appearance which was allowed by Metropolitan Magistrate Jay Thareja.

Barring the former Army chief, the other four accused also sought permanent exemption from personal appearance and their pleas were listed by the court for hearing on August 24.

"Accused number one (V K Singh), two (S K Singh), three (B S Thakur) and four(S L Narshiman) are exempted for today only. Application filed by accused number two, three, four and five (Hitten Sawhney) for grant of permanent exemption till further orders is taken on record," the court said.

During the hearing, advocate Anil Aggarwal, who appeared for Tejinder Singh, moved the application for cancellation of bail granted to all the five accused saying they might tamper with the evidence.

"As per the last order, they (accused) should have been present in the court today. I am moving application for cancellation of bail. If they (accused) are set at large, they are likely to tamper with the evidence," Aggarwal said.

The court had earlier sought from the defence ministry the files related to the issuance of the March 5 press release and had examined them to ascertain whether or not the five persons accused of defaming Tejinder Singh had any role in issuing the release.

The press release had blamed Tejinder Singh, former chief of the Defence Intelligence Agency and some disgruntled serving officers of the Military Intelligence of planting story in the media relating to purported tapping of some sensitive phones in the 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 Singh, who had a long and distinguished career in the Army.