Surrender plea of Verma, wife in fresh case rejected

A Delhi court on Saturday rejected the request of arms dealer Abhishek Verma and his wife to surrender in a fresh case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against them for allegedly forging a letter of its senior agency official to operate his accounts in foreign banks.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Parkash rejected Verma's plea to surrender after the CBI submitted that their custodial interrogation is not required at this juncture as the investigation in the case is at initial stage.

"Be that as it may, it is the prerogative of the investigating agency to arrest an accused involved in any case. The prayer made by accused for surrendering themselves cannot be allowed in view of written reply filed by the CBI," the court said.

During the arguments, Verma's counsel Vijay Aggarwal contended that the conduct of the CBI is not proper as it has been registering fresh cases against both Verma and his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neascu by adopting 'pick and choose policy'.

He said that both the accused were arrested by CBI in a fresh case when they would become entitled to bail in another case on account of non-filing of chargesheet within the stipulated period for filing it.

The CBI, however, submitted, "At this stage various information and details have been requisitioned from various authorities which are still awaited and that the investigating agency will be seeking interrogation of accused at appropriate stage in future."

Verma and his wife had sought to surrender in a fresh CBI case registered against 'Verma and unknown others' for allegedly forging a April 10, 2009 letter purportedly issued

under the signatures of CBI SP Ramnish.