Custody of Abhishek Verma, his wife given to CBI for 7 days

 Businessman Abhishek Verma and his Romanian wife, arrested for allegedly receiving money from a Swiss arms firm for keeping it out of the Indian government's blacklist, were sent by a Delhi court to the CBI custody for seven days.

"Both the accused are remanded in the CBI custody till June 16," Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh said.

Verma and his newly-wed Romanian wife, Ancia Neascu, were arrested yesterday by the CBI after registration of a fresh case by the agency against them.

In the new case, Verma has been accused of taking USD 530,000 from Rheinmetall Air Defence AG (RAD) for using his influence to stall the blacklisting proceedings initiated by the government against it after the Ordnance Factory Board scam had surfaced.

The CBI produced the couple before the special CBI court and sought their custody for 12 days saying the investigation in the case is going on and they need to unearth the entire conspiracy.

Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Vermas, opposed the CBI's remand application saying the agency had searched their premises on June 7 and his clients were in the CBI's office since yesterday morning.

The counsel said the freedom of his clients has been restrained by the CBI for the last two days and said even the case diary produced before the court is not in a proper manner as contemplated under the Criminal Procedure Code.

He argued that the agency, in its remand application, has said they need custody of both the accused as they are not giving passwords of some of their email-ids.