Abhishek gets bail in Naval war room leak case

The Delhi HC grants bail to Abhishek Verma on the condition, among other, that he will not attempt to influence any witness or tamper with the evidence.

Naval War Room Leak case accused Abhishek Verma was on Friday granted bail by the Delhi High Court on the condition, among other, that he will not attempt to influence any witness or tamper with the evidence.

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Verma, a Delhi-based businessman and the son of former MP Veena Verma and poet Srikant Verma, was in jail since July 2006 for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy behind leak of classified documents from the Directorate of Naval Operation.

Justice S Muralidhar in a judgement on Verma's bail application, asked the accused to furnish a personal bond of Rs 10 lakh and two sureties of same amount.

The Court also asked Verma to surrender his passport to the CBI and asked him to appear before the trial court on every second and fourth Monday of the month and furnish his current address.

The CBI was directed to ensure that the accused should not travel outside India during the pendency of the proceedings. It also in addition that Verma will not attempt to influence any witness or tamper with any evidence.

Making very specific that in case of violation of any condition his bail would be cancelled, the court made said that Verma should not seek unnecessary adjournments during the trial court proceedings.

Meanwhile, Justice Muralidhar directed the trial court to complete the argument on charge and pass an order before September 3.

According to the FIR under the Official Secret Act, on an enquiry it was found that Verma along with some associates, including Kulbhushan Parashar and Ravi Shankaran, the prime accused who has been declared as a proclaimed offender, in connivance with Naval staff had hatched a conspiracy to leak classified informations.

They had used advanced communication tools like pen drive, scanners, fax machine and e-mails etc.