Leak, forgery, bribery: Where cases against defence middleman Abhishek Verma stand

It involves leakage of over 7,000 pages of sensitive defence information from the Naval War Room and Air Headquarters with a direct bearing on national security. Besides Verma, the CBI has charged Ravi Shankaran as prime accused and other serving and retired defence officers.

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2009 forgery case
Status: Chargesheet filed

The CBI has named Congress leader Jagdish Tytler and Verma in its chargesheet for allegedly sending a forged letter to then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2009. The complaint had come from then minister of state for home Ajay Maken, who had alleged that Verma used Maken’s letterhead to write a forged letter to the then PM seeking easing of business visa norms. Tytler and Verma were charged with attempting to cheat under the IPC and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In its chargesheet, the CBI alleged that Tytler had “actively connived” with Verma to cheat a Chinese telecom firm and Tytler had first shown a “fake and forged” letter to the company’s officials, claiming it was written by his party colleague Maken to the then PM. The CBI also alleged that “investigation has… revealed that Jagdish Tytler had knowingly and actively connived with Abhishek Verma in attempting to cheat M/s ZTE Telecom India Pvt Ltd”.

2012 bribery case
Status: Chargesheet filed

In 2012, the CBI arrested Verma and his wife Anca Neascu and accused them of having taken $530,000 from Rheinmetall Air Defence AG for using their influence to stall blacklisting proceedings that government had initiated against it in the wake of the Ordnance Factory Board scam.

It is in connection with this case that Verma’s estranged business partner C Edmont Allen has been sending documents and evidence to agencies, including the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.