New Delhi : Nearly two years after registering a case, the CBI on Tuesday filed a charge-sheet against former Lieutenant General Tejinder Singh, who retired as the defence intelligence chief, under Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, for allegedly offering a bribe to then Army Chief V K Singh in September 2010 to clear a tranche of ‘substandard’ Tatra trucks he had rejected.
The charge-sheet was filed before a special judge at the Patiala House Courts. Gen. V K Singh, who chose to come clean in the attempted bribe of Rs 14 crore, is now a minister of state for external affairs with independent charge of North East Affairs. The charge-sheet accuses Tejinder Singh of offering Rs 14 crore on behalf of the London firm of the Tatra make of trucks to clear the file for procurement of 1676 high mobility vehicles for the Indian Army.
The case was registered and the premises of Tejinder Singh on October 19, 2012 and his premises as also the offices of the truck supplier Vectra and its officials in Mumbai and Noida were raided on October 19 and 20, 2012. On the basis of the complaint of Gen (retd) V K Singh, a preliminary enquiry was registered on April 11, 2012.
It was from an explosive newspaper interview that then Army Chief V K Singh had revealed the bribe allegedly offered to him to clear the purchase of the 1,676 all-terrain Tatra trucks that he had rejected.
Tejinder Singh had then not only refuted the allegation but also slapped a defamation case against V K Singh in a Delhi court even while Vectra boss Ravinder Rishi denied engaging Tejinder to pursue the case of his trucks supplied through BEML, though the CBI succeeded in finding that the two had the relationship that led to it converting the PE into the FIR.
