A Delhi court acquitted all the ten accused charged under Tada for murder, disturbing peace and creating anarchy in old Delhi area in January 1993, a month after the Babri Masjid demolition.
The accused persons were charged under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act for striking terror among the people.
Additional sessions judge Pawan Kumar Jain, after going through the records and the witnesses, announced that, “I am of the considered view that prosecution has miserably failed to prove the guilt of the accused persons. Thus, I hereby acquit all the accused person from all the charges.” According to the prosecution, on 27th January, 1993, around 25 assailants assembled near Koocha Pandit area of Delhi and targeted the Hindu community members as a symbol to protest the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
From the court record, out of the 25 witnesses, some either turned hostile or changed their residential address.
Earlier, the court had observed that the investigation officer (IO) of the case without taking prior “permission either from the court or any higher officer to conceal the identity of the witnesses” has registered a fictitious name and fictitious parentage during the filing of the challan, which created an unwanted confusion in the court.
The court noted, due to the IO failure to submit the pseudo names of the witnesses to the concerned court, “there is nothing on record by which court may conclude that the persons produced by the IO today in the court are the same persons whose identity was withheld by him under the pseudo names.”
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Court reserves order on Tejinder plea
Age correspondent
New Delhi, May 8
A city court on Tuesday heard the arguments in the criminal defamation case filed by Lt. Gen. Tejinder Singh (Retd) against Army Chief Gen. V.K. Singh and four other officials and inquired about the specific roles of the individuals named as accused in the complaint. Metropolitan magistrate Jay Thareja, to whom the case was transferred by additional chief metropolitan magistrate Amit Bansal, fixed May 14 for concluding of arguments on summoning the Army Chief and four others as accused in the case.
During the hearing, the court inquired from Tejinder Singh about the role of each individual and asked if he has any other evidence against the officials apart from their reply to the legal notices sent by him. “During the arguments, reference has been made to a number of documents, including the Defence Technical Publicity Rules, 2004, framed by the ministry of defence.
“The documents require some reading. Put up for conclusion of arguments on the point of summoning on May 14,” the magistrate said.
Besides the Army chief, Lt. Gen. Tejinder Singh has named vice-chief of Army staff S.K. Singh, Lt. Gen. B.S. Thakur (DG MI), Major General S.L. Narshiman (Additional Director General of Public Information) and Lt. Col. Hitten Sawhney, accusing them of misusing their official positions, power and authority to level false charges against him.
Anil Kumar Aggarwal, the counsel appearing for Lt. Gen. Tejinder Singh, said the Army Chief made a complaint to CBI that he was offered a bribe of `14 crore to strike a defence deal on April 10 while the press release on the issue of “off-the air-monitoring” was made by the Army on March 5.