The External Affairs Ministry has served a show-cause notice on arms dealer Suresh Nanda, alleged to have received kickbacks in defence deals, asking him as to why his passport should not be revoked following a plea by the CBI.
The CBI, while pleading successfully for suspension of Nanda's passport for another month till March 30, had made a simultaneous plea to revoke his travel document permanently, ministry sources said.
The show-cause notice was served few days before his arrest on Saturday night from a five star hotel in Mumbai along with his son Sanjeev Nanda, his chartered accountant Bipin Shah and Deputy Director of Income tax Ashutosh Verma.
The CBI had taken the plea that his passport needed to be revoked in Public Interest after which the Ministry issued a notice under section 10 (3)(c) of the Indian Passport Act to show cause whey Nanda's travel document should not be revoked Under Section 10 (3)(c), the passport authority can deem it necessary to revoke the travel document in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of India, friendly relations of India with any foreign country, or in the interests of the general public.
Nanda was alleged by the CBI to have received kickbacks in defence deals including in purchase of Barak missiles from Israel and armoured recovery vehicles.
The CBI is continuing with its probe to ascertain the source of money to the tune of Rs 400
The CBI had also issued an alert to all passport authorities, immigration checkpoints in India, Indian Missions abroad as well as other authorities concerned in this regard.
Nanda, son of former Naval chief Admiral S M Nanda, has denied any wrong doing in any of the defence deals and also claimed that the money received from abroad was through legitimate banking channels.
The CBI also plans to seek a review of the Supreme Court's January 24 order where it had asked the agency to release his passport within a week as it had not taken permission for retaining it under the Passport Act but had done it under Criminal Procedure Code.
The CBI alleged that Nanda received Rs 400 crore from overseas after the Barak missile deal was signed between the Defence Ministry and an Israeli firm and had shown himself as a British national in Media-Asia Europe firm in the UK, a charge denied by him.
Nanda's name was mentioned in the CBI's FIR in the Barak deal for allegedly having paid Rs two crore to former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitley at Fernandes' house to get the NDA government's signature on a contract for seven Barak Anti-Missile (AMD) Systems and 200 missiles from Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd (IAI).
