Letter alleges Varun Gandhi honey trapped; MP refutes charges

Swaraj Abhiyan on Thursday released a letter written by US-based lawyer C. Edmonds Allen to the Prime Minister's Office that alleged BJP MP Varun Gandhi was "honey trapped and compromised" by defence middleman Abhishek Verma.

Gandhi, LOk Sabha member from Sultanpur constitguency in Uttar Pradesh, has termed the allegations as baseless.

The letter, written on September 16, said that "a member of parliament of defence consultative committee named Varun Gandhi has been honey trapped and compromised by the notorious arms dealer Abhishek Verma."

Varun Gandhi is no longer a member of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of Defence Ministry.

The letter was released by Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan at a press conference here. Allen has also sent the letter to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Yadav said Allen was a former partner of Verma and had parted ways with him in 2012.

Responding to the allegations, Gandhi told IANS that he was deeply hurt by the "sleazy allegations".

"I was deeply hurt by the sleazy allegations against me. I will file a criminal defamation suit against Prashant Bhushan," Gandhi said.

The Bharatiya Janata Paty MP added that as member of the Defence Consultative Committee he had no access to any secret information and Defence Consultative Committee's report on generic matters.

Swaraj Abhiyan leaders also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government and the Congress of colluding with each other and compromising "national security".

Yadav accused the government of "deliberate inaction" against the Congress in the alleged Scorpene submarine deal scam.

Yadav said the BJP would accuse the Congress of irregularities in the Scorpene deal while in the opposition, but it took no action after coming to power.

"That is because if the BJP brings out the name of the middleman involved in the deal, then as per rules the company supplying the submarines will have to be blacklisted," Yadav said.

"But in that case, the recent Rs 58,000-crore Rafale deal would also have not been possible as the same company that supplied Scorpene submarines is involved in Rafale deal as well," he added.

--IANS

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