New Delhi: The CBI on Friday chargesheeted arms dealer Abhishek Verma, his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neacsu, their company M/s Ganton India Pvt Ltd and a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force for allegedly possessing secret defence documents and supplying them to foreign nationals in violation of the Official Secrets Act.
They were charge sheeted under section 3 of the OSA (for passing sensitive information) and also for criminal conspiracy and theft from a place for custody of property under the Indian Penal Code.
"From the investigation conducted in the case so far, it has come on record that Verma and Anca first came in contact with C Edmond Allen and persuaded him to do business through them. For this purpose they incorporated M/s Ganton Ltd, USA. It was an independent identity," the CBI said in the charge sheet filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Parkash.
"During period from 2009-11, they also got incorporated other companies namely M/s Ganton India Pvt Ltd and M/s Sig Sauer India Ltd. Verma and Anca and their associates in a clandestine manner and after hatching well planned conspiracy, obtained possession of these documents (secret documents) for any purpose prejudicial to safety and interest of India.
"They also communicated these documents and information to the persons who were neither authorised to receive them in any capacity nor Verma or Anca were having any kind of concern/ connection with the same," the charge sheet said.
The CBI also said the secret documents also contained a scanned copy of handwritten notes pertaining to revenue procurements of IAF and that was when Rao was called to join the investigation and his specimen handwriting was taken.
Accordingly, Allen and Verma entered into an escrow agreement. M/s Ganton Ltd, USA was set up by Allen as per the request and directions of Verma in March 2005 and Allen was the only person on board of directors and was designated as president.
This was followed by formation of M/s Ganton India on October 9, 2009 at New Delhi with 99.99 per cent equity share holding of Ganton Ltd, USA.
As per Allen this was a front company of Verma and Anca was founder director of Ganton India. Other directors were Jitender Garg (advocate), Vikki Chaudhary, Arjun Arora. Later, Allen was made a nominee director.
Investigators said they found that the employees of Ganton India included ex-Indian defence officers and foreigners and Verma was controlling the affairs of the company.
"It is pertinent to mention that neither Verma nor Anca or Ganton India were capable of receiving information/ documents in any capacity," the CBI said.
It also said that Verma was using various e-mail IDs for communications and to give directions to his employees and had elaborate electronic communication set-up based on Internet.
Verma was using skype id `sheikabhi` for communicating with Allen and others, the agency said.
"Verma and Anca in conspiracy with each other and other known/ unknown persons for secret information. Copies of documents related to the three wings of Indian Defence forces, obtained from ministry of defence/ defence establishments and from those employed in internet infrastructure (including Skype and email) to communicate the secret and sensitive documents/information to unauthorised persons," the charge sheet said.
The charge sheet also said Verma with the help of Anca,
Rao and others obtained and communicated `Summary of upgrade package` to his employee Gili Golan, who further sent it to Paul Parmar and other email showing action undertaken by Golan in respect of M/s Elbit Systems.
PTI
