Suresh Nanda in for some tough grilling

Nanda, whose passport was suspended twice earlier this year, has been undergoing investigation for his role as a middleman for various defence deals, reports Anuradha Mukherjee.

Arms dealer Suresh Nanda is no stranger to controversy and is one of the high-profile accused in cases pertaining to defence deals like the Barak Missiles and Armoured Recovery Vehicle that are being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

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Nanda, whose passport was suspended twice earlier this year, was undergoing investigation for his role as a middleman for various defence deals.

If the CBI is able to clinch the custody of the four accused — Suresh Nanda, his son Sanjeev Nanda, chartered accountant Bipin Shah and income tax deputy director Ashutosh Verma — in court on Monday, the Nandas would have to face some heavy grilling at the hands of the agency.

Nanda is likely to be quizzed over foreign remittances equivalent to about Rs 400 crore that the CBI says were never reflected in his account books.

“He used the money to buy a five-star hotel in central Delhi, land for Special Economic Zone in Mumbai and a hotel, and another three-star hotel in Faridabad,” said a CBI official. CBI officials say that Nanda, who claims to be a non-resident Indian, has lost his status as one after the purchase of property as per the Income Tax Act.