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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