Naval war room leak case: CBI seeks US lawyer's help

The Central Bureau of Investigation has sought documents related to the escrow account of New York-based firm, an alleged front company of naval war room leak case accused Abhishek Verma, from a United States-based attorney who had run this account for several years.

The agency has deputed Deputy Inspector General Praveer Ranjan to coordinate with lawyer C Edmond Allen and get details about the account which he used to operate on behalf of Verma.

CBI sources said the agency is trying to decipher the money trail involved in the defence deals in which Verma is said to have given kick-backs to army officials.

The agency sources said that Allen has been asked to submit details of nearly $83,000 deposited in the escrow account in the form of securities.

An escrow account is a separate bank account for keeping money that is the property of others. Lawyers keep the escrow account to avoid mingling of client's money with their own funds.

They said some portion of the amount, $20,000 was remitted to the company headed by Verma Atlas Telecom Services through a New York bank.

Allen, who was the lawyer of Verma, had provided information about the alleged corruption in defence deals to team Anna member Prashant Bhushan recently.

They said getting details of transaction routed through the escrow account will give the agency a clear picture of money trail in cases involving Verma which included the Naval War Room case.

During the probe of the case, CBI has said that Verma was allegedly representing Atlas group in India. It had claimed in its charge sheet that Verma had allegedly received over Rs six crore to grease the palms of defence officials to extract information about defence deals in the pipeline.