Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi yesterday rejected as “false and frivolous” allegations that he was “honey trapped and compromised” by defence middleman Abhishek Verma and had leaked defence secrets.
“I would like to point out the false and frivolous nature of the charges, and the impossibility of these allegations,” Gandhi said in a statement addressed to “my fellow countrymen.”
Gandhi said he was a member of both the Defence Standing Committee and Defence Consultative Committee from 2009, but that he never attended a single meeting of the Defence Consultative Committee and very few of the meetings of the other.
“Clearly I was neither actively seeking out nor passing on any information. Had there been any hidden agenda or motivation as alleged in the letter, it would have been reflected in my attendance,” he said.
He was referring to a letter written by US-based lawyer C Edmonds Allen to the Prime Minister’s Office in which he has alleged that Gandhi was “honey trapped and compromised” by Abhishek Verma.
Gandhi also clarified that as a first-time opposition MP, he could not and did not have access to any sensitive defence information.
“So the question of being allegedly coerced into revealing anything does not even arise,” he said.
He said the case has been extensively investigated by both the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate and over several years on the basis of which charge-sheets have already been filed.
“In none of the proceedings has my name ever cropped up, nor has there been any indication of my involvement in any capacity whatsoever. Had the top investigative agencies even the least suspicion or proof of any involvement on my part in all these years, it would surely have been reported by now,” Gandhi said in the statement.
The BJP leader also said that he will take legal action against those who had deliberately sought to tarnish his reputation.
“My family and I have been deeply traumatised by these lies. I am taking legal recourse against those who have deliberately sought to tarnish my reputation and public standing,” he said.
Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on Thursday released the letter written by Allen in which the whistleblower had alleged that Gandhi had been blackmailed into revealing information from the Defence Consultative Committee, allegedly using pictures of him with ‘foreign escorts’.
“I have never met Edmonds Allen, who has written this letter containing these allegations. Nor do I have any details of who he is, or what he does, except as has been reported in the press of him being a former associate of Abhishek Verma,” Gandhi said.
“I first made acquaintance with Verma when I was a college student in England. He was introduced as the son of late Veena and Shrikant Verma, both Members of Parliament from a reputed family. We met socially over a short period of time.
Varun Gandhi: rejects allegations
