By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court has directed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) designated court to reconsider terming Abhishek Verma, a businessman, as “approver” in the forgery case filed against former senior Enforcement Directorate (ED) Official Ashok Aggarwal.
Justice A.K. Sikri said, “The special judge is to consider Aggarwal’s application afresh in the light of the charge sheet, which had since been filed, the entire material available with CBI and also after obtaining the information about various cases against Verma,”
In a petition Aggarwal, former Additional Director, ED, had sought quashing the special court order of September 2001 making Verma – son of an MP and also an accused in the case – an approver.
The CBI had filed a case against both Aggarwal and Verma for allegedly fabricating some documents to implicate a Delhi jeweller in a foreign exchange regulation act (FERA) violation case.
The petition alleged that the trial judge had passed the order even when the investigation in the case was not completed.
He had contended that in view of Verma’s past and present conduct and his involvement in various criminal cases including the Navy war room leak case, he should not have been made an approver. In June 2002, the Union Finance Ministry had accorded sanction to the CBI for prosecuting Aggarwal.
The charge-sheet filed in the court alleged that Aggarwal and Verma entered into a criminal conspiracy to implicate jeweller Subhash Chandra Barjatya in a FERA case by forging valuable security and planting false evidence against him.
Aggarwal has also been charged under various sections of the prevention of corruption act for allegedly abusing his official position as deputy director in the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The CBI faced seven months of uncertainty in proceeding with the case since neither the Finance Ministry nor the ED was according sanction on grounds that Aggarwal did not belong to their cadre. Finally, after intervention by the high court, the revenue department – in consultation with the Central Vigilance Commission – accorded sanction to the CBI on June 24, 2002.
The CBI charge-sheet alleged that Aggarwal entered into a conspiracy with Verma in December 1997 and plotted a forged letter on the fax of Barjatya, who had a close association with Verma’s estranged wife. The fax message, purportedly sent by Swiss Bank Corporation from Switzerland, indicated a “debit advice” of $150,000 in his account.
On the basis of this fax message, Barjatya was picked up for questioning by the ED on Jan 3, 1998 but was released the next day after the businessman complained of illness. He was again picked up and arrested formally by the ED on charges of FERA violations on Jan 28, 1998. However, the wife of the businessman sent their chartered accountant Mandeep Kapoor to Zurich for finding the veracity of the fax message received on Barjatya’s fax machine.
Kapoor brought a signed statement from the attorney of the Swiss bank and the Indian Embassy at Berne that the fax message received by Barjatya was forged and that the bank had never issued it, the CBI claimed.
Verma, who was in Thailand when the ED had conducted the raids at Barjatya’s premises, was reportedly in regular touch with Aggarwal to know about the progress in executing their plans. During interrogation, when Barjatya denied his involvement in the transaction mentioned in the fax, Aggarwal directed Verma to arrange for credit advice of the said transaction from Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) as a piece of corroborative evidence, the CBI alleged.
The agency also alleged that Aggarwal had abused his official position and taken Rs.1 million from Verma as part of his share from the reward money which Verma would have got on the conclusion of the case. The agency also accused Aggarwal of making back-dated entries in the case file against Barjatya to implicate him in a false case.
In the charge-sheet, the CBI stated that Verma, who had become approver in the case, had been granted pardon by the special judge S.L. Khanna on Sep 7, 2001.