Abhishek Verma, wife denied interim bail

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday declined to grant interim bail to arms dealer Abhishek Verma and his wife accused of possessing secret defence documents and supplying them to foreign nationals in violation of the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Prakash rejected the plea of Verma and his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neacsu for interim bail to attend to his ailing mother. The couple, which have been booked by CBI for allegedly possessing secret documents pertaining to IAF projects, acquisition plans and other information, had sought interim bail citing Verma`s mother`s critical health condition and had told the court that they need to attend to her. Their plea was vehemently opposed by Additional Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan. "Verma was earlier granted bail by the Delhi High Court in the naval war room leak case, in which also he had possessed secret documents relating to the Indian Navy. He, however, failed to maintain the sanctity of that bail and went on to commit offence of similar nature which is before this court," Mohan contended. The court, while agreeing with the prosecution`s submission, said both the accused should not be granted even interim bail considering the nature and gravity of the offences and the fact that both have been charge sheeted under section 3 of the OSA (for passing sensitive information) and of criminal conspiracy. CBI had in November 2012 charge sheeted Verma, his wife, their company M/s Ganton India Pvt Ltd and former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force Koka Rao, who is accused of allegedly leaking the confidential documents which were later provided to CBI by Verma`s estranged business associate CEdmond Allen. CBI said the Defence Ministry had on June 6, last year received a letter from Verma`s business partner and Ganton Pvt Ltd`s president C Edmond Allen with some documents annexed to it. Upon verification, eight of the annexed documents were found to be "secret" and a complaint was made to CBI by the ministry on August 27 following which a case was registered. PTI