On Wednesday the CBI had charged the alleged arms dealer Abhishek Verma and officials of Ganton India and the ministry of defence (MoD) under the Official Secrets' Act (OSA) and criminal conspiracy. The MoD had confirmed that the documents passed by C Edmond Allen, the espoused business partner were all classified.
According to the sources his troubles are only going to get deeper as he was allegedly involved in forging the letter of a CBI Police superintendent.
CBI had filed cases against Verma and a few other unknown officials of the government after the MoD had sent a formal complaint saying that the documents were classified and OSA was violated. CBI arrived at the legal opinion as Verma had not given away the documents but by another third party. The officials and Verma have been booked under section 3 of OSA (passing on sensitive information) and 120-B (Criminal conspiracy). The officials of the MoD and other defense personnel who retired would also be under the scanner for having links with Verma and lobbyists who supply arms.
In the documents, there were sensitive topics such as the acquisition and the future plans of the defense forces. Allen said that Verma had show the documents to establish his influence in the inner circles of the defense. Acquisition plans for next five years for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and some of them relate to buying of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and related system besides infrastructure developed by the IAF were all mentioned in the documents.
Verma and his Romanian wife Anca Neascsu were both booked by the CBI for taking $5.30 lakhs from the Rheinmetall Air Defense, a Swiss organization after they established his influence. He was earlier booked by the enforcement directorate for forgery and then again in money laundering case along with his wife.
Verma may also face charges for forging a letter dated April, 2009, taking the name of a SP and addressing the director of CBI and Interpol's assistant director. In the letter he reportedly tried to inform that a Letter Rogatory sent by the CBI to Swiss authorities saying that no action was taken after they were asked to gather details on Verma's remittances deposited in LGT Bank.
(AW- Anil)
