CBI, IT sleuths search premises of controversial middleman Abhishek Verma

Sleuths from the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income-Tax department conducted searches in about 10 locations in Delhi and Gurgaon, including the premises of Abhishek Verma, a key accused in the naval war room leak case, on Thursday.

The investigative agencies picked up documents from some of the premises, including a farmhouse in south Delhi. The CBI accuses Verma of having taken a huge sum from a Swiss defence company to get its name off the government's blacklist.

The Income-Tax department is also probing the alleged overseas accounts of Verma and his associates. Verma, the son of a former Congress MP, is a controversial businessman and middle-man. In April team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan had accused Verma of being involved in several controversial defence deals.

Verma, who set up a firm with his then American partner Edmonds Allen, was first accused of being involved in the naval war room leak case in 2006. About 7,000 pages of sensitive defence documents were leaked from the naval war room and air defence headquarters about six years ago.

The CBI initially filed charge sheets against a retired naval officer and a relative of former naval chief Adm. Arun Prakash, Ravi Shankaran, who was arrested last year in London on the basis of an Interpol Red Corner notice. However, a British court has just deferred the hearing on Shankaran's extradition till October.

The CBI also registered cases against four other former defence officials. It also filed a charge sheet against Verma for conspiring to obtain the leaked defence documents.