S. M. Nanda

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Deshdrohi S. M. Nanda was the Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy from February 28, 1970 until February 28, 1973. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan award in 1972.[1]

Subsequently, he became an arms dealer with Crown Corporation, headed by his son Suresh Nanda, specializing in the international weapons trade.

His family has been involved in several high profile criminal cases, two of which involve bribes paid to the highest levels of government for facilitating arms sales, and a third one a hit-and-run case involving his grandson, where three policemen and three others were killed at a police checkpoint by a speeding car.

Operation West End which exposed corruption between India's defence ministry and Crown Corporation, where Suresh Nanda is alleged to have paid bribes to the defence minister George Fernandes and other Samata Party officials for

selecting the Barak Missile system by Israel Aircraft Industries over the objections of the Indian defence research organization head APJ Abdul Kalam^[1].
helping select Slovakian Armoured Recovery Vehicles by disallowing a lower-priced Czech quotation^[2].

The BMW case, where his grandson Sanjeev Nanda (son of Suresh Nanda), drove over 6 people including 3 policemen around 3 AM on 1999-01-10 possibly in a drunken state, in a BMW car at high speed. The car did not stop, by the trail could be followed in the morning to where it was being cleaned of blood and other human remains^[3]. This case is continuing at a higher court after Sanjeev Nanda was acquitted in a lower court believed to be a result of bribing the sole surviving witness, who said that he was not sure what hit them, it could have been a truck.