By IANS
New Delhi : The passport of arms dealer Suresh Nanda, accused of receiving kickbacks in a defence deal, was Monday suspended for a further period of four weeks.
The external affairs ministry’s move came at the Central Bureau of Investigation’s request for revocation of his travel documents.
“Besides suspension of the passport, the government has issued an alert to all passport authorities, immigration checkpoints in India, Indian missions abroad as well as other authorities concerned in this regard,” a ministry official said.
The consular section of the passport and visa section of the ministry informed the CBI of the decision.
The order for the suspension of his travel document was issued under section 10-A of the Indian Passport Act.
The ministry will, meanwhile, consider the CBI’s request to revoke his passport.
Earlier, the CBI has secured suspension of Nanda’s passport Jan 30.
The CBI has accused Nanda, son of former Indian Navy chief Admiral S.M. Nanda, of receiving Rs.4 million ($99,943.82) in kickbacks after a deal to purchase Israeli Barak missiles was signed during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.
The $100 million (Rs.3.9 billion) deal had come under the scanner after it was alleged that then defence minister George Fernandes had overruled, at the behest of Suresh Nanda, the opinion of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that it could develop a system similar to the Barak.