French Portal Made New Claim Regarding Rafale Deal
French portal made a new claim regarding Rafale jets. 650 million bribes were given in the Rafale deal before 2013.
French investigative magazine Mediapart has claimed afresh that French aircraft company Dassault Aviation paid at least 7.5 million euros to a middleman to secure the Rafale jet deal from India.
The magazine in its investigation found that this payment to the middleman was made in Mauritius during the period 2007 to 2012.
At that time, the UPA government was in the center under the leadership of Congress.
The same magazine reported in July that a French judge had been appointed to lead a highly sensitive judicial inquiry into suspected corruption and favoritism.
A judicial inquiry in the matter of Rs 59,000-crore inter-governmental deal with India for the supply of 36 Rafale fighter jets.
There has been no reaction from the Ministry of Defense and Dassau Aviation on this latest report so far.
The magazine said in the latest report on Sunday that Mediapart is publishing alleged bogus bills.
This reveals that French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation paid Rs 7.5 million to middlemen to help finalize the deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets from India. Commission paid in euros.
French portal made a new claim: The magazine alleged that despite having such documents, the Indian investigative agencies decided not to proceed with the case.
The report claimed that the case involved companies based abroad, dubious contracts, and bogus bills.
Mediapart may uncover that officials from India’s federal investigative agency CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) had evidence since October 2018 that Dassault Aviation paid 7.5 million euros in commission to middleman Sushen Gupta.
BJP IT cell convener Amit Malviya attacked Congress and said in a tweet that Dassault paid 146 lakh euros (Rs 107.9 crore) to middleman Sushen Gupta between 2004 and 2013.
The then UPA government was taking commission but was not finalizing the deal.
After the NDA came to power, a new agreement was signed with the French government, which dashed the hopes of Rahul Gandhi.
It is noteworthy that after seven years of exercise, the NDA government had signed an agreement with Dassault to buy 36 Rafales on 23 September 2016.
Congress has been an attacker on the government over the Rafale deal.
It accused the government of irregularities in the deal, saying the government was buying each plane at a price of over Rs 1,670 crore, while the previous UPA government had finalized the deal for 126 aircraft at Rs 526 crore per plane.
Before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress raised many questions about this deal, but the government had rejected all the allegations.
Rafale maker Dassault Aviation and India’s Defense Ministry had earlier denied allegations of any corruption in the deal.
In 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions seeking a probe into the deal, saying there was no basis for it.
In a statement published in April on MediaPart’s news, Dassault Aviation said the group complied with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Anti-bribery Convention and international law.
