NEW DELHI, Mar 10:
A Delhi court has dismissed the pleas of controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma and his wife for waiving the condition to furnish two surety bonds for bail as imposed on them earlier in two separate cases of corruption and forgery.
Verma, currently in jail under judicial custody along with his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neascu, for alleged roles in separate cases lodged by CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), had moved the court saying it was “impossible” for them to arrange the surety bond which they are required to furnish.
Special CBI judge V K Gupta dismissed their pleas saying, “It is not the case of accused persons (Verma and Anca) that they are not in a position to furnish the bail on account of poverty and it is the settled law that accused can be released on personal bond where he is unable to furnish the bail on account of poverty.”
A surety bond is a promise to pay a certain amount by a person if the accused fails to comply with the conditions imposed on him by the court while granting bail.
Verma and his wife were earlier granted bail in one of the cases on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 2.5 lakh with two sureties of the like amount each.
Verma had approached the court seeking waiver of surety bond saying that his mother, who was to stand surety for them and was to arrange another surety, has suffered “paralytic attack” and it was impossible for him to arrange two sureties.
The court, however, dismissed their applications saying “Non-furnishing of bail is not on account of any poverty, I find no reason to release them on personal bonds.”
Both the accused were earlier granted bail by the court after CBI had failed to file its charge sheet against them in both the cases.
The court has also extended judicial custody of Verma and his wife till March 21. Both the accused were earlier granted bail in two cases lodged by the CBI and a money laundering case registered by the ED but they are still in judicial custody as they are yet to secure bail in a case lodged against them by the CBI under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
They were granted bail in a corruption case lodged by the CBI for allegedly receiving USD 5,30,000 from Rheinmetall Air Defence AG for using their influence to stall the firm’s blacklisting by the government here.
Similarly, they were granted bail in a forgery case lodged on a complaint by Union minister Ajay Maken for allegedly forging his letterhead to write to the Prime Minister to seek relaxation of visa norms for a foreign firm’s executives.
The ED had arrested the couple after they had moved an application to surrender in the money laundering case against them for allegedly receiving money from a Swiss arms dealing firm to keep it out of the Indian government’s blacklist.
The CBI, on November 30 last year, had filed charge sheet against Verma, his wife, their company Ganton India Pvt Ltd and a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force for allegedly possessing secret defence documents and supplying them to foreign nationals in violation of the OSA.
They were listed in the charge sheet under section 3 of the OSA (for passing sensitive information) and also for criminal conspiracy and theft from a place for custody of property under the IPC.
Verma is also an accused in the Naval war room leak case. (PTI)
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