The Delhi high court on Wednesday allowed the plea of Mr Suresh Nanda, accused by the CBI of receiving a huge kickback in the 2000 Israeli Barak missile purchase deal, to go abroad for two weeks after he furnished a surety of `50 crore to ensure his return.
After hearing the plea of Mr Nanda that the probe agency, the CBI, had registered the case in 2006 but no chargesheet had been filed so far, Justice Mukta Gupta allowed him to go abroad for two weeks after he furnished a surety of `50 crore to ensure his return to the country to face the investigation. Mr Nanda has denied any wrongdoing.
“The trial court is directed to permit the petitioner to go to London for a period of two weeks on furnishing a fresh itinerary and his address where he would be staying in the UK,” the court said, adding that the petitioner (Mr Nanda) is also directed to submit the security of self-owned property worth `50 crore (as surety).
Rejecting the argument of the CBI that it has sent letters rogatory to the UK and Israel to probe the alleged receipt of huge kickbacks and that permitting him to go abroad at this juncture would compromise the investigation into the case, the court said, “The travel of the petitioner cannot be withheld indefinitely. The same would be violative of his fundamentals rights.”
Rejecting the claim of the CBI, the court allowed the plea of Mr Nanda, a British citizen of Indian origin, to go abroad,
Mr Nanda’s counsel pleaded before the court that he has a house in London which he has not been able to visit for the past five years. He had moved the Delhi high court after the trial court had on many occasions rejected his plea and accepted the probe agency’s argument that he may not return to India and may also try to influence the outcome of the letters rogatory.
Mr Nanda, the son of former Navy Chief Adm. S.M. Nanda, is accused by the CBI of receiving kickbacks in the Israeli Barak missile purchase deal to the tune of `1,150 crore, signed during the BJP-led NDA government’s tenure in 2000.