Abhishek Verma calls fresh case politically motivated

Naval war room leak case accused and businessman Abhishek Verma said in a special court here Thursday that he has been implicated in a false forgery case that was "politically motivated".

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Sanjeev Jain sent Verma and his Romanian wife Anca Neascu to judicial custody till Aug 16 in the forgery case, saying the matter was at an initial stage.

Soon after they were granted bail in another corruption case, the two were re-arrested Wednesday over a forgery complaint filed by Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Ajay Maken.

"From the material on record, it appears accused Abhishek Verma had sent the copy of the letter, purportedly written by Ajay Maken to the prime minister, to Edmond C. Allen (his former associate) through this email ID. In the said email, he also wrote that the matter of extension of visa of employees of ZTE Telecom Indian Pvt Ltd has been taken up with the officials of government of India."

Verma opposed the extension of his judicial custody, saying that he was implicated by the CBI in the forgery case at the behest of Congress leader Jagdish Tytler against whom he had deposed in a corruption case.

He told the court that it was a "politically motivated" case.

"This is political rivalry and this is being done at the behest of Jagdish Tytler as I had deposed against him in another (graft) case. There was a deal between me and the CBI as per which it had said that if I give evidence and depose against Tytler, the agency will not oppose my wife Anca's bail in that case. I gave evidence against Tytler but the CBI backtracked," Verma said.

In the corruption case, Verma and his wife were arrested June 8 for allegedly receiving money from a Swiss arms company to stall the blacklisting proceedings against it by the Indian government. The two were granted bail in the case Wednesday before being arrested.