Row erupts as French media says ‘commission’ paid in Rafale deal

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, April 5

A French media report alleging suspicious payments to an Indian company for the Rs 59,000-crore deal under which New Delhi ordered 36 Rafale jets from Dassault Aviation reignited debate over the aircraft purchase back home with the opposition Congress demanding an independent probe and the ruling BJP dismissing the charges as “baseless.”

The report, published by news portal Mediapart.fr, alleged that the discrepancy was found during an audit of Dassault Aviation by French anti-corruption agency Agence Française Anticorruption (AFA). Dassault allegedly paid about one million euros (approx Rs 8 crore) to Defsys Solutions in India for making 50 models of the aircraft, which were to be given as “gifts to clients”.

“The agency’s (AFA) inspectors found that Dassault had agreed to pay one million euros to a middleman just after the 2016 signing of the Rafale fighter jet deal. That middleman is now accused of money laundering in India in another defence deal. The company said the money was used to pay for the manufacture of 50 large replica models of Rafale jets,” said the report. The inspectors were given no proof that these models were made. Yet, against all apparent logic, the AFA decided not to refer the matter to prosecutors, the report said.

Defsys Solutions belongs to the family of Sushen Gupta, arrested by the ED in another case. According to the report, members of the Gupta family had been “acting as middlemen in aeronautical and defence industries for three generations”.

Congress media head Randeep Surjewala asked if the government would invoke integrity clause of the Defence Procurement Policy, which bars middlemen in defence contracts and provides for banning the supplier, cancelling the contract and registering an FIR in case of evidence of commissions.

“Will this happen now? Does the matter not warrant an independent probe into India’s biggest defence deal as to how much bribe was paid and to whom in the government?” asked Surjewala.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad trashed the allegations as “corporate rivalry and completely baseless”, accusing the Congress of undermining the armed forces’ morale. He said the Supreme Court had rejected a demand for a probe and the CAG too had found nothing wrong. He alleged Sushen Gupta had links with the Congress, which had been “established in the AgustaWestland case”.