A day after his passport was revoked temporarily by the Centre, the CBI on Thursday questioned arms dealer Suresh Nanda, son of former Naval Chief Admiral S M Nanda, in connection with alleged kickbacks received in the Barak missile deal.Nanda, who had challenged impounding of his passport by the CBI in Supreme Court, was summoned to the CBI headquarters here in the morning to explain foreign remittances to the tune of Rs 400 crore allegedly transferred into his bank accounts.The remittances, the agency claimed, was a kickback from the Barak missile deal, the sources said.The External Affairs Ministry issued an order on Wednesday evening suspending his passport for four weeks following a CBI application for revoking this travel document.The Central agency has alleged that an amount Rs 543.33 crore from various sources abroad went into his bank accounts between 1995 and 2001.The CBI probe into Nanda’s dealings gathered momentum after the Interpol told the agency that Rs 400 crore was deposited in Nanda’s bank account after the Barak missile deal was signed between the Defence Ministry and an Israeli firm.The CBI alleged that a five-star hotel in the national capital might have been purchased by the Nandas with kickback money he allegedly received for brokering a Rs 1,100-crore deal between an Israeli company and India.The money might also have been allegedly misused to purchase a hotel in Mumbai and land for Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Maharashtra, sources said.The CBI alleged Nanda had shown himself as a British national in Media-Asia Europe firm in the UK, a charge denied by Nanda. The CBI was also awaiting for replies to its Letters Rogatory sent to the UK, Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates and Germany.The agency was also banking heavily on a statement recorded of Nanda’s former chartered accountant Bipin Shah in November last year in which he had alleged that no information on foreign remittances was provided to him, the sources said.
