CBI asks govt to revoke arms dealer Nandas passport

The CBI has approached the government to revoke arms dealer Suresh Nandas passport for his alleged involvement in receiving kickbacks in defence deals including that in purchase of Barak missiles from Israel and armoured recovery vehicles.

New Delhi, Feb 24 : The CBI has approached the government to revoke arms dealer Suresh Nanda's passport for his alleged involvement in receiving kickbacks in defence deals including that in purchase of Barak missiles from Israel and armoured recovery vehicles.

As it is continuing with its probe to ascertain money allegedly to the tune of Rs 400 crore received by him from abroad, the CBI has shot off a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs seeking revocation of his passport under the section 10-A of the Indian Passport Act.

Under the act, the government is authorised to impound the passport of any individual if it is satisfied that the holder is in wrongful possession of the travel document.

The CBI had secured temporary suspension of Nanda's passport for four weeks on January 30, a week after the Supreme Court asked the agency to hand over his passport on technical grounds.

Besides suspension, the government had issued an alert to all passport authorities, immigration checkpoints in India, Indian Missions abroad as well as other authorities concerned in this regard.

Nanda, son of former Naval chief Admiral S M Nanda, has denied any wrong doing in any of the defence deals and also claimed that the money received from overseas was through legitimate banking channels.

During the past three weeks, Nanda was summoned to the CBI three times and questioned in connection with his alleged role in purchase of seven Barak Anti-Missile systems and other missiles from Israel as the agency alleges that he had received kickbacks in the deal.

ANI