Twitter
Advertisement

Nandas, IT official and CA arrested

Arms dealer Suresh Nanda, charged with receiving kickbacks in defence deals, his son and two others have been arrested by CBI.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

NEW DELHI: Arms dealer Suresh Nanda, already under scanner in defence deals, was arrested along with his son and two others for allegedly manipulating evidence in his favour in an income tax case, climaxing a chase-and-catch operation seen in Bollywood flicks.
     
Besides Nanda, his son Sanjeev Nanda, who is also an accused in the BMW hit-and-run case here, his chartered accountant Bipin Shah and Deputy Director of Income Tax Ashutosh Verma, an IRS officer of 1999 batch, were arrested from a room in Marriott hotel in Juhu Mumbai last night, CBI said.
     
Verma, who arrived in Mumbai from Goa on Saturday night under a cover name, checked in at the hotel under the assumed name and was closely followed by the father-son duo and Shah also under an assumed name.
     
They were arrested when they were holding "discussion and negotiation as part of the conspiracy" to withhold certain files relating to purchase of Barak Missile Systems from Israel in which Suresh Nanda is an accused.
     
While the all the four have been booked under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and section 201 (committing offence to cause disappearing of evidence) of Indian Penal Code, Verma was further slapped with the charge of abusing his official position and criminal misconduct on Prevention of Corruption Act.
     
Immediately after arresting the four, CBI conducted near-simultaneous searches at 12 places -- six in Delhi, four in Mumbai, one each in Goa and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) -- and claimed to have recovered Rs 32 lakh cash, nine computers (including the laptop of Verma) and two electronic chests.

The income tax case was registered on Saturday after the Income Tax department had conducted raids in February 2007 at the premises held by Nandas during which documents and other material allegedly pertaining to Suresh Nanda and his
associates' involvement in different defence deals were recovered. Verma was handling the probe inot that case.
     
All the four arrested were presented before Additional Sessions Judge in Mumbai C H Mali who approved the transit remand plea of the CBI and directed the agency to produce them before a designated court here within 48 hours.
     
Nanda, whose passport had been suspended by government on a request from the CBI, had dragged the agency as well as the Enforcement Directorate to courts over the past one year on the plea that he was being prevented from going abroad for treatment. He is son of former Naval Chief Admiral S M Nanda.
     
Though the Supreme Court had directed CBI to handover the passport to Nanda on January 24 last month, the agency later approached the government for suspension of the travel document under the Indian Passport Act.
     
Nanda has two cases pending against him for allegedly receiving kickbacks in the Rs 1150 crore Barak Missile System deal and purchase of armoured recovery vehicles.
     
As part of the conspiracy, the CBI alleged that Verma obtained money from Nanda and his son in order to favour them in the investigation report prepared by him in connection with the IT case.
     
The deal was struck through Shah and Verma was asked to deliberately withhold or suppress material in his possession in the investigation report prepared by him to save Nanda and his associates from any prosecution by the CBI and other agencies, the CBI alleged.
     
The officer also showed the draft investigation report, which he had prepared, to the chartered accountant and made changes as demanded by the Nandas, it said.
     
Nanda and Shah had met Verma at a room in the hotel on Saturday for further negotiations on the remaining amount of money, the CBI charged.
     
Nanda, if sent to the CBI remand tomorrow, is likely to questioned about Rs 400 crore allegedly received by him from abroad which the agency claims was never reflected in his account books and was used to purchase a hotel in the national capital, purchase of land for Special Economic Zone in Mumbai and a three-star hotel in nearby Faridabad.
     
Nanda has been maintaining that he had received the money from abroad through legitimate banking channels.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement