The case was handed over to the CBI and Verma turned an approver and named Aggarwal along with Vincent George, the private secretary to Sonia Gandhi, as the people behind the conspiracy. While the CBI filed a case against Aggarwal, they also lodged one against Vincent George for disproportionate assets. Verma named George once again in an FIR, filed at the Tughlaq Road police station on February 23, 2000 (FIR NO 44/2000), stating that George had "tried to influence me to retract my statement under section 164 but I refused." Ironically, while naming Vincent George on one hand, Verma stated that the cases against him were politically motivated by the BJP-led NDA government.
This was but the beginning of Verma’s ongoing tryst with the law. First came the long list of ED cases against him. Verma claims that the cases were filed to harass him as he had turned approver against Aggarwal. But the chargesheet filed by the ED stated that he had been summoned on July 19, 1999. This is contrary to Verma’s claims that he was not under investigation by the ED before December 2, 1999. So far the ED has filed 10 chargesheets against Verma and also adjudicated six cases and levied penalties amounting to nearly Rs 50 crore against him. The cases continue to languish in courts for the last five years.
Then, on December 17, 1999 the CBI filed a case against him for getting a passport under false circumstances. Verma’s original passport (A-2200937) had been impounded by the ED for alleged FERA violations. Verma quietly filed another application with the regional passport office in Delhi claiming that his passport had been lost. Verma filed a false complaint with the Tughlaq Road police station. He was issued a duplicate passport (B-0130584) and he managed to get three visas stamped on it before the fraud was detected.
The CBI filed a case against him under section 420 of the IPC and Section 12 (II) of the Passport Acts, and Verma was arrested. When his bail application came up for hearing, the additional chief metropolitan judge in a January 12, 2000, order stated that Verma was a representation of "crimes professionally committed by deceptively respectable members of the community by inflicting severe trauma on the health and wealth of nation". A few days later, when Verma’s lawyers filed another bail application in the case, the additional sessions judge rejected it on the ground that he had a "mental frame of work and propensity to commit crime". Finally, the chief metropolitan magistrate passed an order on August 2, 2002, that there was a prima facie case and charges could be framed against him.
But Verma continues to jet-set across the world on his original passport. In fact, last year he visited London, Paris, Baden Baden, Mauritius, Zurich and Dubai for "business dealings". Finally, in 1999 Verma had to face summons from the Income Tax department for not declaring income worth Rs 64 crore. An idea of his influence can be got from the fact that despite the CBI raid on June 23, he continues to speak to people using a private number. Like the other cases, a battery of lawyers has ensured that Verma continues to sleep peacefully—only a few knocks by the CBI now is making it a bit fitful.
