Retired Lieutenant-General Tejinder Singh was on Monday sent to judicial custody in Tihar Central Jail following dismissal of his bail plea by a court for CBI cases here in the Tatra truck bribery attempt case.
The Lieutenant-General later moved the Delhi High Court for bail. The application is listed for hearing before Justice Pratibha Rani on Tuesday.
The former Army officer is alleged to have offered Rs.14 crore in bribe to then Army Chief V.K. Singh to clear the files pertaining to the purchase of the high mobility vehicles for the Army. General Singh is at present the Minister of State for External Affairs and the Department of North-East Region.
Immediately after dismissing his plea, Special Judge Madhu Jain asked the CBI officials to take him into custody for being sent to jail.
The court dismissed the argument by counsel for the accused that he deserved to be released on bail as the probe was over. He was never arrested during the investigation and fully cooperated in it, counsel for the accused said.
Opposing the bail plea, CBI counsel submitted that no mercy should be shown to him as everybody is equal before law. When a thief was sent to jail under the provisions of law, the present accused had retired from the post of Lieutenant-General, CBI counsel further stated.
Later, the court fixed October 20 as the date for arguments on charge framing by counsel for the accused and the CBI.
Mr. Singh earlier appeared before the court on a court summons. The court had on August 30 summoned him, taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI in July.
Former Defence Minister A.K. Antony and V.K. Singh are among the prosecution witnesses whose statements recorded during the probe the court had relied on to take cognisance of the offence under Section 12 (abetment of offence) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and summon the accused.
The CBI in its charge sheet alleged that Tejinder Singh had met V.K. Singh at his office in the South Block on September 22, 2010, and offered a bribe of Rs.14 crore to him for clearing the files relating to purchase of the vehicles. Taking strong umbrage to it, the then Army Chief had asked Tejinder Singh to immediately leave the office. He had then immediately intimated about the incident to then Defence Minister, Mr. Antony, the charge-sheet said.
During the probe, Mr. Antony admitted to having been intimated about the alleged offering of the bribe by Tejinder Singh, the charge-sheet added. The CBI has also annexed phone records purportedly establishing that Lt. Gen. Tejinder Singh was allegedly in regular touch with arms dealers.
While reports earlier suggested that the agency was initially reluctant to proceed with the case further due to insufficient evidence, the CBI filed the charge sheet against Tejinder Singh in July.
