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Scorpene
dealer a scamster: Fernandes
New
Delhi: Responding to the alleged middleman of Scorpene
deal, Abhishek Verma's demand of public apology, former
Defence Minister George Fernandes today termed Verma's demand
as "a joke". "What a joke!" Fernandes said in a press release
here today, adding that "As far as tendering apology to
a well-known scamster like Abhishek Verma is concerned,
the question does not arise at all". Accepting that he has
received a letter from Verma in which he had asked Fernandes
to tender a public apology lest a defamation suit will be
filed against him, Fernandes stated: "Here is a defamed
person who at the instigation of a defamed government is
threatening to file a defamation case against me and other
senior leaders".
On
Friday, Abhishek Verma in an interview to private news channel
NDTV had refuted the allegations of receiving a kickback
in the rupees 18000-crore submarine deal and had said that
he would be filing a defamation suit against Leader of Opposition
L.K. Advani, former Defence Ministers in NDA Government,
Jaswant Singh and George Fernandes for publicly maligning
his name. Verma had also alleged that Advani was working
at the behest of Suresh Nanda, an international arms dealer
who has a joint venture with German submarine makers HDW
a competitor of the French company Thales. Last October,
Government of India signed an agreement with the French
company Thales for purchasing six submarines. However, the
deal ran into controversy after the 'Outlook' magazine reported
that Abhishek Verma had acted as the middleman and received
four percent of the deal amount as kickback. Training guns
on the UPA Government today, Fernandes posed eight questions
to it and queried why the Government was mum on the trail
of the money between the French company Thales and Verma.
Fernandes has asked why the Government is not investigating
to find whether the e-mails as claimed by Verma as fabricated,
is fake or genuine; considering that fabrication of e-mails
is a crime under India's strict cyber laws. Referring to
the Navy War Room leak case which owes its link also to
the Scorpene deal, Fernandes questioned Defence Minister
Pranab Mukherjee's contradiction to the Navy War room leak
calling it as commercial information while Navy in its affidavit
had stated that the leaked information was "prejudicial
to the interest of the state and undermining the security
of the nation". Fernandes also demanded that the Government
should name the foreigners as stated by Navy to be involved
in the leakage of sensitive information. .
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