New Delhi : Arms dealer Suresh Nanda, already under scanner in defence deals, was arrested along with his son and two others for allegedly manipulating evidence in his favour in an income tax case, climaxing a chase-and-catch operation seen in Bollywood flicks.
Besides Nanda, his son Sanjeev Nanda, who is also an accused in the BMW hit-and-run case here, his chartered accountant Bipin Shah and Deputy Director of Income Tax Ashutosh Verma, an IRS officer of the 1999 batch, were arrested from a room in Marriott hotel in Juhu Mumbai on Saturday night, the CBI said.
Verma, who arrived in Mumbai from Goa on Saturday night under a cover name, checked in at the hotel under the assumed name and was closely followed by the father-son duo and Shah also under an assumed name.
They were arrested when they were holding "discussion and negotiation as part of the conspiracy" to withhold certain files relating to purchase of Barak Missile Systems from Israel in which Suresh Nanda is an accused.
While all the four have been booked under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and section 201 (committing offence to cause disappearing of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code, Verma was further slapped with the charge of abusing his official position and criminal misconduct on Prevention of Corruption Act.
Immediately after arresting the four, the CBI conducted near-simultaneous searches at 12 places -- six in Delhi, four in Mumbai, one each in Goa and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) -- and claimed to have recovered Rs 32 lakh cash, nine computers (including the laptop of Verma) and two electronic chests.