Bribery case: Arms seller Suresh Nanda, IRS officer amongst 3 convicted

A Delhi courtroom on Thursday convicted IRS officer Ashutosh Verma, alleged defence intermediary Suresh Nanda and his chartered accountant Bipin Shah in a felony conspiracy case wherein Verma was allegedly bribed by Nanda to dilute a report in opposition to him and protect him from prosecution in ongoing investigations by CBI and different companies.
The investigations associated to defence offers and associated issues.
Special Judge Arun Bhardwaj convicted the three accused individuals underneath felony conspiracy costs, noting that it has been proved past doubt that Verma “diluted the appraisal report to favour” Nanda and Associates on the behest of Shah.
Verma was earlier deputy director (investigation) within the Income Tax Department on the time.
The judgment acknowledged, “This is no part of a government servant’s duty to meet secretly at odd hours those persons whose matter he is dealing officially. So much so, to keep his meeting at Mumbai (a) secret, Ashutosh Verma sought permission to visit Lucknow from prosecution witness Shailender Handa and proceeded to Mumbai. There is definite evidence that he diluted the appraisal report and thereby committed the offence under Section 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of IPC, making him ineligible for the protective coverage of sanction under Section 197 (prosecution of judges and public servants) CrPC.”
The courtroom will hear the arguments on sentence on 5 April.
Sanjiv Nanda, Suresh’s son, was earlier discharged on this case.
As per the prosecution, on March 8, 2008, the 4 suspects had been arrested whereas holding a gathering at Mumbai’s JW Mariott resort. The CBI had alleged that the accused “entered into a criminal conspiracy for the purpose of manipulating the report of Income Tax investigation being conducted (by) Ashutosh Verma to show undue favour to Suresh Nanda, by abusing his official position.”

Verma had carried out searches on the premises of Nanda in February 2007 and appraisal report of the search and seizure of incriminating paperwork was underneath preparation with him.
Shah, on the behest of Nanda, had approached Verma to “to minimise income tax liabilities after obtaining huge illegal gratification from Suresh Nanda and Sanjiv Nanda,” the CBI had submitted.
The CBI had produced 134 incriminating phone conversations and SMSes that had been intercepted in 2008. Besides this, the company additionally relied on 32 incriminating conversations between Nanda and a few others, together with prosecution witnesses, associated to the dialogue on a land deal in Goa.

Lawyers for the accused had advised the courtroom that recorded conversations contained in a CD will not be admissible.
The courtroom, nonetheless, dominated that the CD was admissible. The order famous: “There is no other objection to the CD. It is not the submission of the accused that there is any tampering, alteration, transposition, excision in the recorded conversations. The accused have not come forwarded with a case that there are conversations in the CD in their voices but the incriminating parts of the conversations are result of tampering, alteration, transposition, excision etc.”