Suresh (top) and Sanjeev after their arrest. (PTI)

March 9: A father-son duo of a celebrated military family have been arrested from a Mumbai hotel in a cloak-and-dagger operation befitting the intrigue surrounding the arms deals they have been linked to.

Arms dealer Suresh Nanda and his son Sanjeev were arrested last night from JW Marriott hotel while they were allegedly negotiating a bribe with an income-tax deputy director to manipulate a case which forms the basis of investigations into several defence deals.

Ashutosh Verma, the deputy director of income tax (investigation), and a chartered accountant, Bipin Shah, were also arrested.

Suresh Nanda is the son of Admiral S.M. Nanda, who led the Indian Navy during the 1971 war with Pakistan and later wrote the book The Man Who Bombed Karachi.

Suresh had already been charged with receiving Rs 1,150 crore in the Barak missile deal signed during the NDA’s rule. His son Sanjeev is the key accused in the BMW hit-and-run case.

The CBI said in an official release, without naming the two, that they had bribed Verma, who had last year raided the Nanda duo. Several defence deals are being probed now on the basis of the findings of that raid.

The CBI today said Verma had obtained a “huge” bribe from the “known defence middleman” and “his son” to give them a clean chit.

“…the official deliberately withheld/suppressed the incriminating material in his possession in the investigation report prepared by him in order to save the defence middleman and his associates,” the CBI said.

The officer also showed them the draft investigation report and made changes demanded by the middleman, the release said. The four met at a room in the hotel for “further negotiations on the remaining bribe amount. The CBI team raided the hotel and caught all the four while their meeting was on”, it added.

The release said searches were continuing in New Delhi, Ghaziabad, Mumbai and Goa.

The CBI was tracking the movements of Verma ever since he and his family started holidaying in Goa a few days ago. He landed in Mumbai yesterday under a fictitious name and proceeded to the hotel, a CBI team hot on his heels.

The room in the Marriott was also booked under the same fictitious name. After his arrival, the Nandas and their chartered accountant reached the hotel, soon after which the CBI swooped down on them.