New Delhi, Oct 21: A US-based lawyer has alleged that his former business partner and controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma "honey-trapped" BJP MP Varun Gandhi and some senior military officers with foreign sex workers to extractsensitive information about defence deals.
The allegations have been made in two letters sent to PM Modi's office on August 25 and September 16 by lawyer-turned-whistleblower C Edmonds Allen, who has over the years supplied hundreds of documents to CBI and other agencies against Verma, an accused in the infamous Navy war-room leak of 2005 and other cases.
Purportedly backed with "CDs and photos of the MP with foreign prostitutes in compromising positions", the September 16 letter alleges that Verma and his associates "compromised" and blackmailed Varun Gandhi, who was then a member of the parliamentary consultative committee on defence, and possibly other MPs and their staff as well as some officers.
Making public documents sent by Allen in a press conference here on Thursday, except for "the sleazy photographic evidence", Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav said their intention was to show how both the Congress and the BJP "participate in, collude with and protect each other in compromising vital national security interests".
They claimed that Thales, a company in the scorpene submarine project, had not been blacklisted as it would affect the deal for Rafale fighters. Rafale manufacturer Dassault controls Thales, said Bhushan.
Varun Gandhi strongly rejected all charges as "totally ridiculous", holding he would quit politics "even if 1% of all this" was true. "The entire information presented does not contain an iota of proof that either I had access or shared any communication regarding sensitive information to Verma," said Varun.
Verma, who had gained a dubious reputation as a big-time middle-man in Indian defence deals before being arrested under the Official Secrets Act in the war-room leak case in July 2006, also refuted the allegations. "Allen is a blackmailer...he has morphed the pictures," said Verma, who is out on bail.
Allen alleged there was "enough evidence" against Verma, his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neacsu, Air Marshal Harish Masand (retd) and others for having conspired to compromise Varun Gandhi and others to get vital information on defence deals for different arms manufacturers. One of the manufacturers mentioned is Hawker Beechcraft Corporation, which was in the running to get a contract for supplying trainer planes to IAF.
Swaraj Abhiyan said the war-room leak case, the Rs 18,000-crore deal inked in October 2005 with French companies for construction of six Scorpene submarines and the recent Rs 59,000-crore deal for 36 French Rafale fighters, were all inter-linked.
They alleged that Verma, son of a former Congress MP, was the middleman in the Scorpene deal but the then UPA government supressed a proper probe to "bury the case". The NDA government, after it assumed office in May 2014, also did not pursue the matter despite defence minister Manohar Parrikar himself recently admitting that commissions were paid in the Scorpene deal.
"The NDA government did not blacklist Thales (one of the main French companies in the Scorpene project). Any action against middlemen in the Scropene deal would have led to the blacklisting of Thales, which in turn would have jeopardised the recent Rafale deal. Thales is after all controlled by (Rafale manufacturer) Dassault," said Bhushan.
"Moreover, contrary to previous announcements of getting 126 aircraft, the government has now bought just 36 fighters by paying double the earlier price per unit," he added. The government should immediately order registration of an FIR against Verma and Thales in the Scorpene case as well as "come clean" on the price negotiations for the Rafale fighters from the beginning till the end. "The Rafale deal should be scrapped," he added.
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