M A I N   N E W S

Verma held in Navy war room leak case

New Delhi, July 21
Delhi-based businessman Abhishek Verma was today arrested by the CBI in connection with the Navy war room leak case for his alleged involvement in the leaking of classified military information.

Verma, whose premises were raided on June 23, was summoned to the CBI headquarters here this afternoon for questioning, after which he was placed under arrest, CBI sources said. He would be produced before a court tomorrow.

With this, the number of people arrested in connection with the case has gone up to seven.

The CBI sources said several documents, a computer and other equipment, including his scanner, were seized during searches on Verma’s premises. Verma has already denied his involvement in the matter.

After analysing the computer’s hard disk and the memory of the scanner, the CBI decided to summon Verma for custodial interrogation, the sources said.

Verma was named by Kulbushan Parashar, one of the main accused in the case who is currently in judicial custody. He is also alleged to be a close associate of Ravi Shankaran, another accused and kin of the Navy chief, Admiral Arun Prakash. Shankaran has been declared a proclaimed offender by a court here.

The CBI, which registered a case in March, has claimed that the probe has so far revealed that apart from the leak of information from the Navy war room and the Air Defence Directorate, there was prima facie a larger ring of “compromised officials” in various wings of the armed forces and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), who were giving sensitive information in exchange of gratification. — PTI