Abishek Verma, in the eye of a storm over alleged payoffs in the multi-billion Scorpene submarine deal, on Friday slapped criminal defamation notices against Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani and Jaswant Singh as also National Democratic Alliance convenor George Fernandes for dubbing him as a 'middleman' in the deal.
"I am neither an arms dealer nor a middleman nor am I representing any armament companies," he said in the notices to the three leaders and demanded from them a public apology within three days failing which he threatened to file a criminal defamation case.
"I state that each and every allegation made against me is false, malicious and defamatory and further the documents purporting to be e-mails purportedly exchanged between me, Thales' Chairman and 'Marguax Hemmingway' are forged and fabricated documents," he alleged in a press release.
"The allegation levelled against me are totally false, unsubstantiated and misleading and are defamatory to me and my family," he said, further adding, "I have absolutely no connection with, and nor in any manner concerned with the transaction of purchase of Scorpene submarines by the Government of India," he added.
He said he had already filed a suit against a magazine for carrying charges against him based on 'fabricated e-mails and forged documents.'