Court to decide on charges on arms agent Abhishek Verma, German defence firm Rheinmetall

NEW DELHI: A critical court day is coming this week for arms agent Abhishek Verma and German defence conglomerate Rheinmetall with a special court set to decide on the framing of charges in a case involving alleged payments made to influence the defence ministry in 2011.

The case – one of the several being faced by Verma that range from forgery to violating the official secrets act – has seen a long ranging investigation by the CBI that included tracking banking transactions from Europe to the US, linking Verma and his associates with the German conglomerate and an open red corner Interpol notice that still stands against a top executive of Rheinmetall.

The German company has been accused by the CBI of paying Verma over $5,30,000 to get it off a defence ministry blacklist.


Rheinmetall has faced corruption charges in several cases, including a sale of tanks to Greece in 2009 where the arms company admitted to paying bribes worth $127 m in an out of court settlement with the prosecutors.

In India too, the German company’s troubles started in 2009 when the CBI registered an FIR accusing it of bribing the then Director General of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to secure a contract for supply air defence guns to the Indian Army.

“On the basis of investigation of this (2009) case, blacklisting of RAD (Rheinmetall) was recommended by CBI. When this matter of blacklisting was under process, Abhishek Verma got in touch with the representatives of RAD and assured them of help by influencing the public servants to stall the process of aforesaid blacklisting of RAD,” the CBI’s chargesheet reads. Special Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna will hear the case on Wednesday.