Navy War Room leak case accused Abhishek Verma was on Saturday sent to ten days' custody under the Central Bureau of Investigation by a city court for allegedly using advanced communication equipment, supplied to him by an international communication company, to pass on top defence secrets to co-accused Ravi Shankaran and Kulbhushan Parashar.
"Abhishek Verma was passing on sensitive information to Kulbhushan Parashar, Ravi Shankaran and even to foreign office bearers of Atlas Group of Companies of which he is one of the founder-directors," the CBI told Delhi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini.
Both parents of Abhishek -- Srikant Verma and Veena Verma -- were Congress parliamentarians.
Briefing the court on Verma's role in the leak, the agency alleged that the accused had maintained close relations with Shankaran, who first introduced him to Parashar at a party in Hyatt Regency in New Delhi in July 2001.
The three men had then hatched the conspiracy to infiltrate the higher defence circles to access confidential data housed in restricted areas, the agency told the court.
"The three men -- Abhishek Verma, Ravi Shankaran and Kulbhushan Parashar -- played an active role in the conspiracy to leak documents from restricted areas like Directorate of Naval Operations at South Block and Air Headquarters," it added.
Further, the agency said Verma's relations with Parashar was a vital key to understand the conspiracy better as all the sensitive documents had 'come out' of the restricted areas via the latter.
The probe had revealed that the alleged spy ring used high-tech communication techniques to infiltrate and leak sensitive data, the CBI said, adding that it was further probing Atlas' role in supplying cutting-edge technology, which facilitated the leak.
The agency alleged that a raid on Verma's premises on June 23, this year had led to the recovery of a large number of mobile connections, whereas he had only a work staff of 10.
In reply to the application, Verma's counsel Siddharth Luthra contended that further custody was merely a ploy to get a confession out of the accused and was 'self-incriminating' in nature.
Verma has been accused of offences under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and the relevant provisions of the Official Secrets Act.
