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March 19, 2001

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Army court of inquiry begins
proceedings in Tehelka case

The three-member high-level Army court of inquiry, headed by Lt Gen S K Jain, Monday began in-camera proceedings into the sensational Tehelka tapes case, against the backdrop of Army Chief Gen S Padmanabhan's warning that the guilty would be sternly dealt with.

Besides Jain, the court of inquiry has Maj Gen Mohinder Puri and Maj Gen M Mathew, both additional director generals at the Army Headquarters.

The first major task of the inquiry is to write to tehelka.com, asking for the tapes, army sources said, adding that five other officials who figured in the tapes had been attached to the Army headquarters pending completion of the inquiry.

The inquiry has provisions for calling civilian witnesses, the sources said. Though there was no timeframe set, it would be completed at the earliest, they said.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh Monday took over additional charge of defence minister but preferred not to function from where his predecessor George Fernandes worked.

Singh briefly visited the Defence Ministry in the afternoon to meet Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain and other top officials of the ministry at the conference room.

Service chiefs Padmanabhan, Air Chief Marshal A Y Tipnis and Admiral Sushil Kumar called on him.

In Beijing, China expressed hope that Singh would work hard to promote understanding and trust between the two countries and militaries so as to further bilateral relations.

"We congratulate External Affairs Minister Mr Jaswant Singh on his joint appointment as Defence Minister," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said, adding, "Singh is an experienced politician."

"We hope and believe that during his term as defence minister, Singh will advance the understanding and trust between our two countries and military and continue to work hard to further the development of Sino-Indian relations," Zhu said.

"He has done work which has helped the improvement and development of Sino-Indian ties," Zhu said, referring to Singh's ice-breaking visit to Beijing in June, 1999, which helped thaw the near freeze in India-China relations after the Pokharan-II nuclear tests by India.

During Singh's visit, India and China reiterated that "neither country is a threat to the other".

PTI

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