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Former chief of army staff General (retired) V.K. Singh was on Friday granted bail in a defamation case filed against him by a former military intelligence chief, Lieutenant General (retired) Tejinder Singh. Along with him, the Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. S.K. Singh, Major General S.L. Narsimhan and Col. Hitten Sawhney, were also granted bail by the Patiala House court. The officers had to sign a bond of Rs 20,000 each. Lt.Gen. (retired) Tejinder Singh had earlier contended that General (retired) Singh had defamed him by claiming through a press release that he had offered the ex-army chief a bribe of Rs 14 crore to clear a 600 truck deal. The court had on June 8 directed them to appear before it on July 20, saying they have been "summoned as accused in the present matter". On March 5 this year, the Indian Army, in an official statement, had said that Lt. Gen. (retired) Tejinder Singh, was not only planting reports in the media, but had even tried to bribe the army chief for clearing a file relating to purchase of a tranche of 600 sub-standard Tatra trucks. The court had earlier said it would pass an order only after going through the file relating to the publication of the army's March 5 press release. The court had earlier said it was "prima facie" satisfied that the March 5 press release was defamatory, as a serious allegation of "bribery" has been made against Lt. Gen (retired) Tejinder Singh, who had a long and distinguished career in the army.

Ex-army chief General VK Singh gets bail in defamation case