New Delhi: The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are considering to send their teams to the US to record the statement of C Edmond Allen, the estranged business associate of alleged arms dealer Abhishek Verma, in connection with the cases against him.
While the Directorate team is set to travel to the US, the CBI is considering a similar move to prepare a watertight case against the arms dealer, official sources said.
CBI sources said the agency has written to Allen to provide his statement but it is yet to hear from him.
The CBI is planning to complete the probe and file a charge sheet by next month. It has booked Verma and his wife Ancia Neascu for allegedly taking USD 5.30 lakh from Swiss firm Rheinmetall Air Defence AG for using his influence to stall the blacklisting proceedings initiated by the government against it after the Ordnance Factory Board scam had surfaced.
Both are in judicial custody at present.
The ED has started a criminal probe in the case on the basis of the CBI complaint against Verma, they said.
The Directorate has recently registered a fresh money laundering case against Verma in its probe against him for allegedly receiving money from the Swiss firm to keep it out of the government`s blacklist.
US based attorney Allen, who has majority stake in Ganton USA and Ganton India companies and alleged to be a front of Verma, had approached the CBI Director and other top officials alleging Verma received funds from the Swiss firm for bailing it out.
The ED has been accorded the permission to record Allen`s statement from top echelons of the government as Allen has raised questions, in his communication with the government, about the relations of some former Defence Ministry Joint Secretaries with Verma and his associates, the sources said.
PTI
