Varun Gandhi, BJP Member of Parliament, issued a clarification after facing charges of leaking military secrets to an arms dealer and weapon manufacturers after being allegedly “honey-trapped”. Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) parliamentarian on Saturday asserted that all claims were false and frivolous.
In a letter titled “to my fellow countrymen”, Gandhi said that “I could not and did not have any access to any sensitive defence information, so the question of being allegedly coerced into revealing anything does not even arise. While I am confident that neither of you nor any right-thinking person places any credence in these allegations, what I find worrying is that such baseless accusations should be circulation at a time when the entire nation is united behind our brave defence forces.”
He listed out the fact to dismiss the ‘malicious’ rumours against him
- Gandhi said that he never met Edmond Allen who wrote the letter with the charges against him.
- He further stated that it was bizarre to claim that he leaked top-secret defence information from the Defence Parliamentary Committee when every Parliamentarian is well aware that no sensitive defence information is shared with such a panel.
What are the allegations against Varun Gandhi?
The controversy erupted after Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav released a letter written by Edmonds Allen, a New York-based lawyer, to the Prime Minister’s Office last month stating that Gandhi was honey-trapped and had leaked secret information to arms dealer Abhishek Verma.
Edmonds Allen has alleged that his former business partner and controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma honey-trapped Varun Gandhi and some senior military officers with foreign sex workers to extract sensitive information about defence deals.
Allen has alleged that Gandhi, as the member of the parliamentary defence committee, had access to information that was shared with Verma to “compromise national security’.” The seven-page letter goes on to say that the BJP MP stood “compromised” because of his pictures with foreign escorts and prostitutes.
Gandhi went on to emphasise that he and his family have been deeply traumatised by these lies
“This letter has made very serious allegations against me without any facts, evidence or justification whatsoever. It is unethical that such damaging accusations should have been publicly aired without being scrutinised, verified or even clarified,” he said.
