After nearly a year's investigation of four major defence deals, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday conducted searches at nearly four dozen places in five states against arms dealers involved in the purchases made during the tenure of former defence minister George Fernandes.
After registering three fresh cases in the designated court on Monday evening, CBI teams swooped down at nearly 50 locations in Delhi, Gurgaon, Sangroor, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune, including offices and residences of the arms dealers, official sources said.
The Khannas -- Vipin, Aditya and Arvind (the Congress legislator from Sangrur in Punjab) -- had allegedly acted as middlemen in a defence deal with South Africa's Denel, the sources said.
Aditya Khanna is already facing the heat from the Enforcement Directorate for his alleged role in Iraq's oil-for-food scam.
While there were no arrests so far, the sources did not rule out the possibility.
Sudhir Chowdhury, a leading arms dealer of the country, came under the scanner along with Suresh Nanda, son of former naval chief Admiral S Nanda, as the CBI conducted searches at their premises.
They played an active role in the purchase of the Israeli Barak missile system. India had acquired nine Barak systems for Rs 1,160 crore with 200 missiles worth Rs 350 crore.
CBI had registered a Preliminary Inquiry against "unknown public servants" of the defence ministry and R K Jain (former Samata Party treasurer and an associate of George Fernandes) on October 20, 2005.
The office and residence of another arms dealer, M S Sahani, was also searched by the CBI for his alleged involvement in the deal to purchase the Krasnopol terminally guided munitions after the Tehelka expose.
The CBI sources said they would try and ascertain the role of these persons in relation to other cases being probed by the agency.
The CBI has registered nearly a dozen cases on defence deals signed during the previous National Democratic Alliance regime, besides the case related to the supply of anti-material rifles by South Africa's state-owned arms manufacturer Denel.
The agency is also probing allegations of irregularities in the purchase of special ammunition for 155mm howitzers for Rs 166.44 crore, spares for the 155mm guns worth Rs 97.65 crore and special clothing and mountaineering equipment worth Rs 95.15 crore.
Among other deals referred to the CBI were those for acquiring automatic grenade launchers (Rs 52.13 crore), bulletproof jackets (Rs 51.65 crore), multi-purpose boots (Rs 30.37 crore), charging/generating sets (Rs 28.15 crore), sleeping bags (Rs 20.69 crore), surveillance radars (Rs 9.86 crore) and sniper rifles (Rs 9.54 crore).
