NEW DELHI: Controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma’s former aide has written to the Prime Minister’s Office alleging that Verma used escort services to blackmail people, including a senior BJP leader, who was part of the Defence Consultative Committee to get access to secret documents.
The letter written by Edmonds Allen, a New York-based lawyer, to the PMO in September said a BJP MP was ‘honey trapped’ and compromised by middleman Verma, who has been already chargesheeted in
three defence deal cases and is currently out on bail. Allen wrote to the PM, defence minister, CBI and NSA with all the details in August and September.
Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav on Thursday attacked both the Congress and BJP government for sitting on information pertaining to the middleman, top defence officers and the
BJP MP allegedly involved in procurements. Releasing the letter written by Allen to the PMO, they questioned the recent deal with Dassault for 36 Rafale aircraft.
However, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar refuted the claims and said in the Rafale deal no middlemen were involved.
Allen, a partner of Verma, fell out with him in 2012. Verma is facing trial in the 2006 Naval War Room leak case and two other cases. Bhushan alleged that despite having all the details, the BJP government did not blacklist Thales, the company that sold the scam-tainted Scorpene submarines, as Dassault acquired it.
“Any action against Thales may have jeopardised the Rafale deal. Moreover, contrary to previous announcements of getting 126 aircraft, the government bought 36 aircraft, paying double the price for
individual units. Something is fishy,” Bhushan said. “The infamous Navy War Room leak and purchase of Scorpene submarines are linked to the recent mega-deal for purchase of Rafale aircraft,” he charged.
However, he and Yadav did not take the BJP leader’s name during the presser and instead asked the media to refer to the letter. They claimed to have withheld photographic evidence pertaining to the matter.
“The Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence, as one of the then members of this committee (a BJP MP) was compromised by these middlemen with the help of foreign women ‘escorts’,” Bhushan said
and added all the information was in the possession of the offices of the PM, defence minister and NSA for two months, but they did not act on it.