Bhagwat denied that this representation had gone unredressed. And instead of six, there were only ``two communications and several telephone conversations.'' Said Bhagwat: ``In fact, when Sushil Kumar came to Delhi to attend the Senior Naval Officers' Conference, he met me in the presence of the Vice Chief of Naval Staff and expressed regret having sent the statutory complaint andsaid he wanted to withdraw it. A letter was subsequently sent recording the above facts.''

As for Fernandes's statement that the Naval Chief had been asked on several occasions not to ``cross the line,'' Bhagwat is also said to have denied this.

``The Defence Minister has said that on hundreds of occasions he had asked me not to cross the line whereas there was not a single such occasion,'' a private TV channel quoted him as saying in a written statement, an agency report said.

His wife Niloufer Bhagwat said if the government instituted both a parliamentary and a CBI probe, it would know the facts. ``He (Fernandes) will take his words back...''

On the charge by Fernandes that the Admiral never brought the alleged nexus among arms dealers, politicians and bureaucrats to the notice of the Government, she said that in April last year, Admiral Bhagwat had raised the matter.