BJP MP Varun Gandhi dismissed allegations made by Abhishek Verma as nonsensical. (Source: File Photo) BJP MP Varun Gandhi dismissed allegations made by Abhishek Verma as nonsensical. (Source: File Photo)

A former partner of arms dealer Abhishek Verma, in a letter to the Prime Minister, has alleged that Verma “honey trapped and compromised” BJP MP Varun Gandhi into leaking information about defence matters, and blackmailed him with photographs taken with “foreign escorts”. Verma is facing charges of corruption and money laundering.

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Varun Gandhi dismissed the allegations as “nonsensical” and “insane” and said he would take legal action.

The September 16 letter that C Edmonds Allen, a New York-based lawyer, wrote to the Prime Minister was released Thursday to the media by Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav. Allen’s letter mentioned that Varun was “a Member of Parliament of the Defence Consultative Committee”.

Varun told The Indian Express: “Anyone who knows about the defence committee knows that there is no secret or confidential information that is ever shared with the committee.”

Abhishek Verma Abhishek Verma

“Abhishek Verma’s parents were Rajya Sabha MPs, a respected family. I last met him when I was a 22-year-old. I was a post-graduate student in London then, very far from public life. I have never met him since. I have heard wild and nonsensical allegations but there is not a shred or iota of proof or evidence to substantiate any of these insane claims. It is very easy to attempt to blacken someone’s good name. I have taken this very seriously. I find it seriously defamatory and will be taking legal action,” Varun said.

Releasing Allen’s letter, Bhushan and Yadav alleged that “these startling disclosures suggest that politicians from Congress as well as the BJP may have been involved in compromising vital national security information. It also shows that despite possessing credible information concerning serious breach of security during the UPA government, the current BJP government has not taken any action against the guilty”.

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“One of the key revelations by Allen is that despite being tried in a sensitive and high profile case of leakage of defence information, Abhishek Verma continued to receive and pass on defence secrets till as late as 2011. In his letter dated 25.08.2016, addressed to the Prime Minister, Allen gives the details of the role played by various retired naval officers in providing top secret and sensitive information of the Indian Navy including Scorpene submarines to… Abhishek Verma,” Bhushan and Yadav said in a statement.

They demanded that the government order a “credible investigation into the charge made by Edmonds Allen along with photographs of a member of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence being compromised by these arm dealers through women escorts”.

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