Embraer deal: CBI files chargesheet, names arms dealer Arvind Khanna, others

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 5

The CBI has filed a chargesheet against arms dealer Arvind Khanna, advocate Gautam Khaitan and businessman Anup Gupta in the Embraer deal corruption case in which alleged kickbacks of USD 5.76 million were paid to swing a three aircraft deal with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in favour of the Brazilian firm, officials said today.

Corruption case

Alleged kickbacks of USD 5.76 million were paid to swing a three aircraft deal with the Defence Research and Development Organisation in favour of the Brazilian firm

The officials said the CBI had filed the chargesheet under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Khanna, Khaitan, and Gupta.

The CBI had dropped proceedings against NRI businessman Vipin Khanna, who was named in the FIR, after his death. The deal for the three aircraft, which were to be used by the DRDO for installing air-borne radar systems, was inked with Brazilian firm Embraer on July 3, 2008.

The CBI in the chargesheet alleged that the kickbacks worth USD 5.76 million were allegedly routed from subsidiaries of Embraer to Vipin Khanna through Singapore-based Interdev to be used for influencing officials in the DRDO.

In its FIR, the CBI had also booked Embraer and Interdev in connection with the alleged corruption in the deal.

The CBI had instituted a preliminary enquiry in September 2016 after a report in a Brazilian newspaper alleged that Embraer had roped in middlemen to clinch deals in Saudi Arabia and India. According to the defence procurement rules of India, middlemen are strictly barred.

The CBI has said that due to alleged mediation by Vipin Khanna, DRDO officials moved a proposal for the purchase of aircraft from Embraer on a single-vendor basis. “It was also alleged that in lieu of facilitating the agreement/deal between Brazil-based firm and DRDO (India), the firm paid an amount of USD 5.76 million to the middleman (Khanna) through Singapore-based company in 2009,” the CBI spokesperson had said at the time of registering a regular case.

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